No Rest for the WCKD
by Dragons and Breakfast Food
Summary: A story of A Traveler. A Fair Maiden. A Mental Patient. and A Cyborg. (R&R! Fav&Follow!)
1. Wanda

**NO REST FOR THE WICKED**

 **Prologue: Castle**

 _The truth that many people never understand until it is too late is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer… because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt._

* * *

The moon was full that night. Only small fragments of the shattered area visible, the rest pale and flawless in comparison the imperfection in the separate pieces. It was cloudy so the moon was a gift in itself, barely seen behind the dark cloak of the night.

The forest was strangely silent; trees dark and dreary looking as if from a child's nightmare, their branches bare of leaves and blanketed in snow as cold winds blew through them, adding to the silence.

A silence that was then ripped away by trucks roaring down the snow covered road that ran through the forest. Large trucks carrying what was most likely heavy cargo covered in tarps bearing the insignia of a snarling wolf with three slashing claw marks. The insignia of the White Fang.

No doubt stolen goods from the SDC or any other supplier of dust in Remnant. But what was strange; the larger trucks were covered in tarps, their cargo a mystery, but the smaller vehicles were clearly dust-carriers. Crates to carry the crystals and long, thick canisters to carry the dust.

What were they hiding under those tarps?

The cars all drove in a line, with sentries riding the outside in order to keep a lookout for any threats ahead of them. And that my friends is called an idiot move.

They looked ahead.

But not above.

In the span of two seconds the engine of the leading vehicle went from fully operational to exploding into a pile of flaming metal. The driver attempted to swerve and regain control but he was no match and ran straight into a tree, successfully halting the other trucks a delaying their arrival at wherever they were driving to.

A man wearing a tell-tale Grimm mask, hair buzzed down to mere stubble, and more than enough muscle, climbed out of the second truck to examine the damage.

"What happened!?" he demanded. Other soldiers gathered around to put out the flames, when the muscled one spotted a shadow move in the trees behind him.

As quick as lightning he pulled the sniper from his back and fired three rounds into the trees, startling the birds as well as his fellow White Fang members. Collective silence fell over them as he scanned the snowy branches, seeing nothing.

Suddenly a figure dropped down from behind him, well away from him and his soldiers. The leader spun to face is adversary, only to be met with quiet amusement.

A girl, around the age of a teenager, with a long white braid and a red leather jacket over her white dress.

His amusement fell away immediately as he spotted the silver shotgun propped up in the crook of her elbow, her other hand smugly resting on her hip. He couldn't see it from here, but the barrel of the gun was still smoking from when she took out the lead truck.

A smirk slithered its way onto his face, "Bring her to me." He growled to the closest soldier, about half of them charging forward to subdue the girl and take her in.

As the first soldier swung his sword, the girl blocked with her shotgun before slamming the heel into his face, knocking him into the snow. The second tried to shoot her but she swept his legs under him before back-kicking him upward and firing a round into his stomach. She back flipped to avoid bullets being fired by the remaining tree soldiers, landing and pulling the trigger that turned her shotgun into a long silver spear.

The girl spun her spear to deflect the bullets, the soldiers charged forward, but the girl used the blunt end of her spear to hit the feet of the one in front of her while the one behind her was lifted by the blade of her weapon and thrown into the body of the first, still yelping in pain from being whacked in the shins. The last one standing tried tackling her wit brute force, but the girl just stabbed her spear into the ground and swung around side-kicking the soldier in the face, rendering him unconscious in the snow.

With no soldiers left the white-haired girl faced the leader, her spear still lodged in the snow, and the smirk still evident on his face. The teenager ten got to see what was under those tarps.

Atlesian Paladins, three of them, most likely just prototypes as seen they lacked that classic Atlas White paint finish. The important detail, however, was that three soldiers were currently controlling them, one being the leader himself, and their guns were pointed right at her.

In her show of defiance, the girl reached into the pouch on her belt, retrieving an ice dust crystal and loading it into the barrel of her spear-gun with a tell-tale **_chick-chuck!_**

The muscly guy with his 'manly' buzz-cut, gestured to the soldier in the paladin next to him, telling him to basically kick her butt. Or kill her. Either one would have been fine to that guy.

The white-clad girl just stood there, leaning on her spear as the paladin approached her. Each step of its metallic feet shaking the earth but not intimidating her that much. The clunky robot came to a halt about five feet away from where she stood, the teen having to look up to see the man controlling it.

An eerie silence stretched on for about five seconds before the girl pulled her spear and attempted to charge the mech, only for it to use its massive arm to swat her body backwards like a tiny bug. She crashed through a couple trees before crashing to the ground leaving a teardrop indent in the snow and earth.

Now a normal person would've been killed and dismembered by a blow like that, but thanks to the girl's aura she just had the breath knocked out of her. She used her spear to pull herself to an upright position, spotting the paladin father away from her now.

The mech charged in a mechanical sprint, crashing past a tree splitting the massive thing into splinters trying to reach her. It wound up and smashed its fist into the ground creating another indent, luckily the girl got to her feet and rolled out of the way in time, her spear ready this time.

The paladin attempted to grab her but she back flipped out of its reach. She attempted to get a running start in attacking it but that just resulted in it landing a lucky punch to her gut, sending her flying into the snow again. Her patience wearing thin, the pale-haired teen gripped her spear, forming a white glyph beneath her feet and lunging upwards, her blade drawn. Unfortunately the mech saw her speeding form and punched her down into the trunk of another tree. This one didn't break but it sure as hell hurt.

The girl, though already one-third down of her aura, got to her feet with a snarl on her face and her weapon bared. A giant mechanical arm swung at her but she blocked with her blade, the mech tried to swing from the other side but she jumped over it before landing on top of its enclosed metal fist.

Summoning another white glyph the girl lunged upwards slicing into the mech with her spear. The paladin attempted to hit her but with another glyph she sped backwards onto the ground with a cartwheel landing.

She spun to hit the paladin again but it landed a rather good blow that was met with her spear. The whitette grunted loudly as her white boots left deep marks in the ground. The mech swung again but the girl butterfly-kicked over it, landing on her feet facing the Atlesian weaponry.

"Come here little girl!" the soldier inside growled as he brought his mechanical fist down on her, but with a glyph she sliced the paladin's arm clean off!

It sparked and twitched before dying at her feet, the rest of the mech still fully functional without it though. Activating the paladin's remaining arm gun, tried to shoot at her, but she rolled out of the way, all the while slicing its leg off too.

The giant robot suit fell to its last knee as the soldier inside gave the teenage girl a death glare, but all she did was smirk with a twirl of her spear. With a jump and a swing of her weapon, the girl cleaved the mech in two, successfully disarming it, it spewed sparks before falling limp at her feet.

With a moment to catch her breath and a moment spoken for too soon at that, the girl ducked down to avoid taking a rocket to the head, said rocket crashed and exploded into a tree. The whitette spun to see the second paladin, guns fully loaded, and aimed at her. Crystal blue eyes widened as the bullets began to fly, and with the click of a switch her spear was a shotgun once again as she broke into a run.

Splinters and bullets flew through the forest as the girl tried to outrun the gun's fire, at one point she ducked under it and ran the opposite direction. She sprinted in the direction of the mech, bullets still firing rapidly, and with her snow-white glyph she corkscrews through the air to dodge before landing on her feet.

Changing her weapon to a spear again, she springs another blade from the blunt end of the spear and splits the weapon in two, throwing one towards the controlling soldier of the mech. What should have been a clean shot turns to dirt as the robot moves to the side, the blade barely nicking his shoulder before lodging itself in another freaking tree!

Knowing she had barely half of her aura left, and only half her weapon, the teenager summoned all her strength and placed a lucky foot on top of the extended arm of the paladin, running up the arm and coming face to face with the main generator located in its chest. Folding in the blade of her short-spear, she aimed towards its chest and fired five rounds into the paladin.

The generator practically imploded, falling useless into the snow with her standing atop it. Adjusting her jacket the girl puffed out her cheeks with an amused look before jumping down from her second fallen Atlesian garbage. Walking forward towards the last standing mech, or more specifically a silver glint lodged in the bark of a tree.

Gripping the pommel of her other short-spear, the girl ripped it from the wood and gave it a twirl before her crystal blue eyes focused on the Atlesian Paladin containing the big, ugly leader.

Behind her the generator within the fallen mech chose now to explode in a show of fire and fury, the girl not at all phased by the wind and flames whipping past her, churning the fabric of her dress and blowing her ivory braid over her shoulder.

The paladin before her readied his guns with a loud growl she could hear from her place twenty feet away. The girl just reconnected her spear, slamming the blunt end into the ground and stepping back into a fighting stance.

The buff leader charged with a roar, his metal feet pounding the ice with little to no effort to get to her. The girl bent into a crouch, a glowing white glyph forming beneath her feet as wind and aura moved her clothes and hair around. She lifted her spear, moonlight glinting off the ready blade, and in a flash she was thrown into the air.

The paladin froze in its place, its upper half sliding down and falling into the snow in a pile of scrap metal as a trail of snowflakes showed the girl's path through the paladin's chest slicing it in two.

A pair of white boots landed in the snow as the girl crouched on the ground, slightly panting from using most of her aura, and a calmer air took the place of the heaviness the White Fang brought with them.

The girl stood up, wiped the snow from her skirt, and looked up at the full moon.

And a sigh escaped her lips as she walked away into the night.

* * *

 **I'm not very good at writing fight scenes so don't hate this just yet. the song used in this chapter is Castle by Halsey, and a fight scene similar to this can be found on youtube, here's the link - watch?v=c-bCGOthQ5k - Anyway, first RWBY fic, this IS and OC fic, so bare with me, I hope you enjoy!**


	2. Circe

**Prologue 2: Heartbreaker**

 _I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy. My reality is just different from yours._

* * *

The mental hospital of Mistral was one of the most respected and effective facilities in Remnant. They prided themselves on providing a comfortable and safe environment for all of their… patients.

Like the name "Lennox La Belle's Mental Correctional Asylum" wouldn't do that already.

Pristine white rooms, down-filled pillows to rest their insane little heads on, and chocolates filled with caramel, rose petals, and horse tranquilizers. Okay, I was kidding about that last bit.

"Miss Hart, are you listening?" the big-nosed doctor asked, hints of impatience in his stiff, calm voice. The doctor sat in a metal chair at a metal table in a soft white room, a girl in a red dress with black and red curls down her back sitting across from him.

The girl was playing with a red curl with a bored expression on her face, her other gloved hand drumming her fingers on the table.

"Doc, I was just playin' a joke, sheesh." The girl replied in a heavy city accent. The doctor sighed, getting even more annoyed.

"Miss Hart, I wouldn't call vandalizing Sanctum Academy and telling the police that 'the Voices' told you to, a joke." The girl just laughed like she was being tickled from every angle. Identifying as a kook always managed to get her out of trouble with those donut-dunkers at MPD.

She laughed some more before whipping a tear of mirth from her eye, "Well it was pretty funny to me, Doc." The girl cackled. She continued to laugh like a madwoman until an orderly came in with a syringe filled with sedatives so they could put her back in her cell until a parent or guardian came to pick her up.

This however did not register well with her as the orderly gently picked up her arm. "Hey, hands off bozo!" she chirped as she tried to yank her hand away, but the guy held firm. "I said… Hands OFF!" she ripped her arm free and punched the orderly square in the face! He fell to the floor with a sore cheek and a groan. "Wow, can't take a punch, huh cupcake?" she giggled as the doctor went to help him up and the girl bolted out the door.

"Security, Patient 1407 is loose on the third floor." The doctor said into his scroll as he helped the orderly to his feet.

The girl in red ran down the hall giggling until she was met with more orderlies at the end of the hall. She scowled and tried to back up, only to find four more buff bozos blocking her exit. "You know it's rude to gang up on a girl?" she asked.

An orderly tried to run up and tackle her but she spread her legs and jumped over him like a game of leapfrog, the guy crashing into another orderly instead. "Well you know what they say, always takin' hits from blokes who just don't get the joke!"

The guards tried to surround her but she just put her gloved hands on her hips and strutted forward a bit, cartwheeling into a position that placed her in the middle of them all "Alright piggy-piggy's, you gonna show me the exit? Or am I gonna haft'a find it myself?" when she received no answer she just shrugged, "Have it your way!"

The first orderly tried to charge her like the last, but the girl, as quick as a viper, upper-cutted him in the jaw with the palm of her hand, knocking him back. The second guard came at her and she tumbled beneath his legs before kicking him in the groin and hammer-punching him into unconsciousness.

One dumb-dumb threw a punch but she caught his fist and somersaulted over him, throwing him face-first into the wall. She did a double backflip, kicking the next guy in the gut on that second one and round-housing him in the face before back kicking the next in his face.

Another orderly tried to kick her but she grabbed his lifted leg and yanked him forward and head-butting him, elbowing him in the ribs and back kicking his unconscious form away. She threw another punch into some poor shmuck's nose, and when he bent over in pain she jumped off his back and slammed her heeled boots into another bloke's head, both of them fell to her skill.

"You coppers are always fallin' at my feet!" she mocked with a mad giggle. She cartwheeled away from a charging guard before butterfly kicking over another, noticing they were the only two that weren't knocked out. A smirk forming on her red lips, she charged at them.

She corkscrewed into them, trapping one between her ankles and the other within her strong but dainty hands, she spun towards the ground slamming both their fat heads into the tile floor. Both out cold she leapt back onto her feet with a manic grin. "Repeat after me, 'I will not poke fun at a pretty lady!'" she cackled to their sleeping bodies.

She paced for about five seconds before saying to herself "Now to find where they put my Betty-B." she closed her eyes and pointed to a random closet door. The red-clad girl opened up the closet and found a black and white gunslinger rifle with a red metal heart above the trigger. "There's my baby!" she squealed as she scooped the weapon up in her arm like it was a child.

Her moment was interrupted by heavy footfalls moving behind her. She spun around to see the esteemed 'Doctor' holding a mini-tranquilizer gun in his hand with about a dozen beefy orderlies around him. She spun her rifle like a baton with a smile on her face, "All of this for me? I'm touched."

An orderly with a syringe tried to come at her but she slammed the hilt of her rifle into his stomach, "Bad Cop!" she scowled before swinging the rifle into his skull like a bat. She pulled the trigger of her gun and shot the next orderly in the foot and spun through the air round-housing him to the floor while he yelped in pain. "Wow! You're slow!" she punched her palm into another guy's jaw, then clapped her hands against his ears and kneeing him in the crotch and laughing as he crumples to the ground.

She swung her rifle into an orderly's head and brought it down into his stomach while he was down, "You're fired!" the girl back-flipped into another guy, wrapping her legs around his head and spinning him into the dirty tile and stomping on his family jewels for good measure.

She sprung up and pounced on the charging guard behind her, using her rifle like a bat again and swinging it into his face like a golf club, "Why don't you munch on a donut?!" she mocked them as she back kicked the Doctor in his crotch, giggling as his face contorted and he fell to the floor.

The girl pressed a heart-shaped button on her rifle and in seconds the gun had mechanically transformed into a red, white, and black battle axe. She threw the axe horizontally like a Frisbee, the handle hitting the remaining orderlies in the face, knocking them out cold before spinning back into her gloved hand like a boomerang.

She snorted in laughter and she dropped the axe, handle-first into the unconscious Doctor's stomach, grinning as he flinched at the heavy weapon bruising his ribs.

"Well that takes care'a Butter-pot, now to find that exit." The girl said as she dusted off her hands. As she started walking down the halls again, but felt something behind her. She took her axe from her back, spun around and swung it, splitting a tranquilizer dart right down the middle, the useless dart clinking on the floor.

A really big orderly in a white shirt too tight for his amount of muscle stood between her and the exit, wearing SWAT armor and a gas-mask, he also sported a fairly powerful tranquilizer gun. "End of the line Hart!" he said beneath his mask as he cocked another dart.

"You're hilarious!" the teenager cackled as she twirled her axe in her gloved hands. She placed it on her back as the buff guy charged and she charged back. He aimed his gun and as he pulled the trigger she stepped on the barrel of the gun, pushed it down with her weight, and cartwheeled over him. When she landed she kicked him in the butt and he stumbled forward.

He tried to slam the hilt of his gun into her stomach but she scissor-kicked him in the face, knocking his mask clean off his head. He tried to charge again but she tumbled over his back and used her axe to hit him in the back like a game of putt-putt. "You should smile more!" she grinned as he tried throwing punches, each one she dodged or used against him.

He tried to side-kick her in the gut but she stepped on his leg and double kicked his face and groin. When he bent over clutching his groin in pain, she ran forward, axe on her back again, and wrapped her arms around his neck and twirled her body like a dancer before planting her heeled boots on the ground and launching him into the wall head-first.

He still stood on his feet, but was very dazed and was stumbling slightly. The girl in red grinned like a maniac as she took her axe and hit him across the head over and over until she drought it down hard like a hammer. The man collapsed into a heap on the ground with a big bump on his head.

The girl flipped her red and black curls and placed her axe back in its rightful place on her back.

"Well I hope you learned your lesson Lardy, lay off the donuts by the way!" she said before bursting into a fit of psychotic laughter.

And she kept laughing as she left Lennox La Belle's, and did not plan to come back.

* * *

 **and i present the second trailer for team WCKD! the theme for this character is Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar, if you need a picture of her fighting style, or how her accent sounds, here's a link: ****watch?v=FtqTGq63Rx0 Enjoy! don't forget to review!**


	3. Kaia

**Prologue 3: Edge of Seventeen**

 _The arrogance of man is believing that nature is in our control, and not the other way around._

* * *

Carmel colored fingers breezed over the buttons on her radio, pressing down on the play button and closing her eyes as she relaxed to the base-tone of the song coming through the speakers.

 _"Just like the white-winged dove, sings the song sounds like she's singing…"_

The girl with her long hair pulled up into a high ponytail colored in shades of blue hummed along to the melody as she picked up her watering can, turned up the volume, and walked outside. The screen door clanged shut as the song drifted past the walls and into her garden as she watered her precious plants.

As she hummed along to the tune, a grey cat wandered through the leaves of her garden, a low purr in its throat as it rubbed against her legs. The girl looked down at the feline and smiled warmly before she set down her watering can and knelt amongst the growing fruits and herbs, scavenging for weeds and those pesky bugs that loved to munch on her lettuce. Picking out a few weeds, and almost no bugs, looking good so far. Until she came across a small blue bird lying limp in the dirt.

"Oh… poor thing." She said sadly as she picked up the dead bird and cradled it in her arm like a fragile infant. The girl gently ran the pad of her index finger across the bird's soft feathers, her touch light and weightless as if she was petting a bird that was still alive. Her cerulean eyes closed as she cupped her hands around the bird.

Her hands pulsed a glowing blue before she opened her eyes with a warm smile. She opened her hands to be greeted by the lively tweet of a blue bird. Its little glassy eyes blinked up at her like it was giving her a silent thanks before tweeting one last time and fluttering back up into the trees. The blue haired girl smiled up at the light coming through the vibrant green branches, getting to her feet and brushing off her pants, picking up her watering can and continuing to work.

Suddenly a branch in the trees behind her snapped loudly, causing her to whip her head around. She saw about a dozen men come through her trees, accompanied by a rather rough-looking old woman with stringy grey hair and a scar all the way down her face in a diagonal line.

"That's her," the old woman screeched. "That's the witch!" the blue-haired teenager took a tentative step back; she'd lived in this swamp since birth, and people were always calling her things like Witch, Demon, or Grimm Worshipper. Her grandmother told her that they would always be targets for the ignorant. But this was the first time she was ever actually afraid of it.

One of the gargantuan men beside her sent her a glare meant to figuratively make her burst into flames. "You're comin' with us girl." He growled as he and another man each grabbed one of her wrists and tried to pull her towards the others.

Their grip hurt, but she kept her calm exterior as she attempted to try reasoning with them. "Where are we going?" she asked shyly. The man on her left squeezed her wrist tighter and she grimaced from the pain.

They didn't respond. "Please sirs, I haven't done anything wrong." She tried to defend herself. The straggly woman pointed a bony finger at her with a venomous look meant to kill,

"Don't let her words subdue you, witches always lie!" she screeched. The blue haired girl frowned in her direction but said nothing, just tugged and wriggled her wrist to try and loosen this behemoth's grip. Against her better judgement a small whimper escaped her.

She looked up at the man on her right, "Sir, please stop, you're hurting me." She said as softly as possible without being too quiet for him to hear. The man ignored her and dug his nails in deeper, her wrist now becoming numb. She was getting annoyed now and began to struggle more as they pulled her away and tried to subdue her. Her blue ponytail swung wildly as she kicked her legs up trying to get away.

"Hold still!" the one on her left shouted. The girl with the blue hair screamed and kicked him in his legs, for a second he let go of her and she pulled harder on her other hand to get free. The man on her right growled as he pulled out what looked like a hatchet and swung at her.

"I… said… Please!" with a furious shout the girl grabbed the wrist of the man with the hatchet as he brought it down. She twisted his arm and sent his weapon and sent the blade into the man who still held her arm in a death grip. He screamed in pain as the hatchet buried itself in his thigh, letting go of the girl to clutch his bleeding leg.

The girl raised her hands in a fighting stance, more men surrounding her and the old woman cawing insults at her. She shut them all out as she called her aura and extended it to Persephone, the cat sitting still on the porch not making a sound save for her tail rapidly brushing leaves back and forth like clockwork.

"Persephone!" her voice was carried by her aura and the cat meowed loudly before leaping off the porch, her paws lading on the earth as they grew, her claws extended and her lean body became longer and bulkier. Her canines became deadly fangs and her silver and grey striped fur became a mix of ivory and black. With a mighty roar Persephone, once a gentle but spoiled cat, was now a monstrous tiger.

The tiger sprinted into the swarm of men, clawing and swiping her ginormous paws at the backwash idiots that dared attack her master. Many of them, including that old crone, were smart enough to turn tail and run back into the woods, although some were stupid enough to stay and try to fight. Emphasis on try.

"You wretched little thing!" a man growled as he lunged for her. The girl slammed her palm into his heart, and as he coughed and sputtered she cupped her hand and clipped his neck and spun to kick him in the side of the head, knocking him into the dirt.

The sound of a gunshot clacked behind her ear, and as quick as the gun had fired she bent down to grip the sides of her boots and unclipped two blue, metal, bladed fans. They unfolded with a series of metallic clicks as she took her fighting stance once more.

No one dared to move as the air stilled with silence thick enough to cut, the only sounds being the small breeze being cut by the blades of her fans, and Persephone growling lowly as she took her place next to her master ready to pounce on anyone who approached.

"You will burn for your witchery!" a man sneered.

"I haven't done anything wrong and you know it! Go away! I don't wish to harm you," she told them, bite in her tone but her kindness bleeding through even as she held them all at weapon point. A man brandishing a lumberjack's axe swung the heavy blade toward her head but she used her fan to knock his aim sideways and turn his swing into the dirt, stepping on top of the axe neck and turning up the ball of her foot to plant a hard kick into his jaw. Another attempted to tackle her but, quick as a viper, she wrapped her arms around him and bent backwards slamming him into the ground.

A man with a buzz-cut and a rusty hatchet swung near her legs but she jumped over his swing and stomped her foot down on the flat of the blade and elbowed him in the face while he tried to free it. He reeled back clutching his nose before roaring in anger and charging hatchet held high. Her blue hair whipped as she blocked his continuous swings with her fans before turning and sweeping his legs from beneath him and pressing her thumb into the base of his neck where his head met his spine before he could react and stepped over him as he fell limp.

She tumbled forward and leapt up thrusting her legs outward and kicking a man hard in the chest and landing in a crouch as he hit the ground. He pulled a pistol from between his pants and his stomach and shot three rounds at her head. She unfurled her fans and blocked each one with the telltale clang of metal on metal. He got to his feet and fired two more bullets, her blocking them again before pushing his arm down towards the dirt and knocking his gun away while twisting his wrist and pressing into his artery. He shouted at the sudden pain and fell to his knees, the gun too far away for him to reach it. She closed her fan and flattened her hand into a chop before slicing it into his jugular and moving backwards as he choked a bit before falling unconscious and his breathing returned to normal.

A beat passed and more men charged forward. The teenage girl with a flick of her wrists changed her fans to a pair of revolving machine-hand guns, the barrels spinning wildly as she rapid-fired in their direction. One dropped his axe but his friend made up for it by swinging it at her. She bent backwards to dodge it and fired a bullet into the handle where his hand met the wood. He screamed and dropped the axe but not before his friend tackled her to the ground. The girl kneed him in the stomach before flipping him off her and swinging herself back to her feet guns raised.

Another shot fired another man dropped his weapon. A man wielding two hatchets clipped her leg and she toppled to the ground with a squeak and would've been done for had she not twirled her guns so the barrels faced downwards and she blocked his hatchets with her revolvers crossed. He tried to push her down but she used her raw strength to shove him off her and sweep his legs out from under him and knocking him out with the handle of one of her guns. She fired five times at three more men and charged forward when their weapons hit the dirt. Her guns changed back into fans as she knocked one's arm up, kneed him in the chest before closing her arms around his middle and bringing her legs up over them both and flipping them both over into the ground hitting his head into unconsciousness.

The second man she swung her leg diagonally and hit him in his jaw with the ball of her foot before spinning and bringing her other foot into his temple before landing in a crouch on the soil and her fans shadowed half her face like a flirtatious might due were they normal fans, making her appear mysterious and mystifying. One final man remained and she liked to say he did the smart thing and ran, but he foolishly ran for her with a rifle raised like a baseball bat screaming bloody murder. The blue-eyed hermit aimed her fan and threw it like a boomerang, the blade clipping his fingers and the rifle clattering into the dirt. She kicked up and used her momentum to spin through the air and kick him hard in the side of his face. He fell and she landed with her fans unfurled behind her back. She looked like she was kneeling before someone of honor.

She took a deep breath and stood as no other men seemed to be trying to attack her anymore, and Persephone was still in her tiger form purring with her tail swishing once again. The cerulean-haired teen almost relaxed, but then she heard a loud vroom and clatter of an engine powering blades like that of a chainsaw.

Her head whipped around to come face-to-face with a man at least three times the size of the ones she'd just fought; with bulging veiny muscles and his face obscured by half of a red bandana most likely used for shielding the air channels from things like dust or wood chips. His saw roared as he chuckled lowly, the girl somehow hearing it over the engine.

"You're coming with me little girl." He rumbled. The girl fell into her battle stance and unfurled her fans with a look of defiance in her oceanic eyes. Persephone growled but the girl sent her a look and the tiger stepped back and let her master handle it.

One could've heard a pin hit the ground with the silence between the two opponents stretched on until the man, with a mighty bellow, charged at her. He brought his saw down hard into the earth but she leapt over it and landed not far out of the way. He swung it towards her but she blocked and pushed it away using both her fans as a shield, still holding up the saw with one arm he punched her hard in the side eliciting a surprised and pained cry from her. She held up her fan to stop him from landing another punch but he dropped the saw altogether and grabbed her by the arms throwing her hard into a tree.

Muscles and bones popped on impact and though most of the pain was absorbed by her aura the blue-haired girl cried out in pain as the trunk hit her back and she fell to the dirt with a thud. She pulled herself into a kneeling position as she met the man's eyes. He laughed as he charged again, chainsaw raised, but she grabbed her fans and rolled out of the way, his saw hitting the tree behind her instead and hacking into the wood with an almost horrific screech.

The girl screamed in agony as she felt the tree die by the man's weapon. He pulled it from the tree to see her on her knees, her face unseen behind her wall of blue hair, not seeing the small trembles of her quiet sobs for the tree's lost life.

"You accuse me for nothing… attack me for nothing… and now, you've killed my trees… **_FOR NOTHING!_** " her head sprang up to meet his eyes as his own widened in a mix of shock and fear. Her eyes glowed a bright neon blue, green markings of vines, vibrant leaves, and blooming flowers formed and grew around her eyes and down her cheeks like furious tears. Her calm and gentle aura had been replaced by one of power and anger in a matter of moments. And the man felt fear in her presence for the first time; like he was doing something he shouldn't have been… like he was now facing a force more powerful than dust itself. Like magic. Powerful and dangerous magic.

With a roar of her own she raised her fans as they became revolvers once again and she fired a hail of bullets towards him. He had to sprint to avoid them, ducking behind a tree to escape her attack. "You hide behind my garden after you've attempted to destroy it?! I tried to make you leave peacefully but you've refused! Now I'll make you leave by force!" she shouted, her voice losing its kind softness and being replaced by an intense presence of power.

The man showed no fear as he turned and raised his chainsaw and charged at her once again, but she raised her hand finger outstretched and he felt himself fall to the ground within moments. He struggled as he felt vines and roots curl and coil around his ankle and hoist him upwards to dangle like game. Angry he hacked away at the roots with his saw but the girl charged at him and swiped the saw with a cling of her metal fans.

She stepped away and brought her palms together before thrusting her arms forward, more plant vines emerging from the ground and lunging at him like angry snakes. The girl moved her arms in a circular waving motion before bring her arm down in a chop, the vines trying him up and pulling him higher into the trees as he screamed in terror. Tens of the plants sprung from behind her, from the swamps and from her garden they came and wrapped him in their coils as she bent them to her will, her markings glowing an intense green as she did.

Her fists clenched and she brought her arms inward so her plants could make the killing blow, but as she thrust her fists forward and the vines slammed him into the ground… her palms relaxed and the plants did as well. They released the man and receded back to where they were before.

The girl dropped to her knees in exhaustion as the man realized his chance for escape and sprinted screaming into the swamp while he could, not caring about the girl anymore.

She knelt by the tree in which he'd cut down, slowly moving her hands over the ugly splinters and horrid wounds in the wood. Her aura flowed into it as her markings faded away and her glowing eyes returned to their gentle blue.

When she took her hands away, the wood was healed, as if it had never been damaged at all.

 _"Ooh baby ooh, say ooh…"_

* * *

 ** _Hey Guys! sorry I haven't updated this is a while, I've just had some serious editor's block with this one! I couldn't figure out some cool fighting moves for fans! but then I found my rhythm and went with it and here we are! Anyway, the theme song for this chapter was Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks you can find it on youtube. no video reference for this fight I'm afraid, but bright side only one more trailer to go before you guys can see how I plan to make a Mercury x OC! Toodaloo for now!_**


	4. Danny

**Prologue 4: Ride My Beat**

 _It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences._

* * *

Hei Xiong, known to most as Junior, owned fairly popular night club on the more shady side of Vale; there was dancing, a full wet bar, and at the moment a rather large amount of damage. But none the less he wasn't closing down for a night cause of some broken glass that can be swept up no problem. However now broom can fix a busted soda fountain, and here we are.

While people drank and partied around him Junior was at the bar holding an icepack to his crotch and wincing every ten seconds while occasionally glancing down at a male's lower half sticking out from under the bar. The guy fixing his soda fountain was his regular mechanic, despite the guy's age he was the best in Vale. His yellow tool belt chock full of tools and what looked like throwing daggers was visible. Junior could also clearly see a leopard's tail swishing about from under him, making the boy a Faunus.

"Wow Junior, this is the worst 'touch up' I've ever seen, did you get too frisky with a girl again?" the boy asked coming out from under the bar, revealing a teenage boy with wild orange hair and a pair of yellow-green colored eyes with a white stripe running through his mane. He adjusted his leather gloves on his arms and dusted off his pants as he stood up. Junior groaned as he adjusted the ice pack,

"Something like that, thanks for fixing her up." He said handing the boy his payment and easing back into his throbbing pain.

The boy grinned and jumped over the bar and stuck a screwdriver into the back of the soda fountain and started to tinker some more, "Well let me just tighten this screw, and…" he twirled the screwdriver and stuck it in his tool belt before grabbing a glass off the shelf and filling it with a classic People Like Grapes, "We, should be, good!" he stuck a swirly straw and a little hula umbrella into the drink and served it up to Junior, the club owner gladly accepting with a loud slurp.

He let out a content sigh, "Thanks for the help." The boy fixed his own drink and sipped it happily,

"No problem!"

"Hey, while you're here, think you could take a look at the DJ booth? It's been scratching again."

"It's what I do Junior." The boy nodded and set his drink on the bar and started walking up to where Mark was doing his DJ thing with that ridiculous giant bear head. He was halfway across the dance floor when he spotted something a bit disturbing.

It was a girl with long black hair run through with crimson highlights that fell in thick curls down her back. She was sitting at the bar twisting the straw of her neon blue-colored beverage with an unamused scowl on her face. The boy then noticed a guy sitting in the stool next to her with a smirk on his face and not too much hair on his head, clearly not taking the hints this girl was dropping at him to get lost. Being the gentleman he was, the boy abandoned his task of fixing the DJ booth and walked back over to where this girl sat at the bar.

"Come on sweet pea, let me buy you a drink?" the guy slurred, obviously having one too many drinks himself.

The girl rolled her eyes and the boy was able to see a small black tattoo of a heart just beneath her left eye. It was actually sorta cute. "Sorry hon, but I already got one from Tiny up there." She gestured to Junior who was cleaning glasses behind the bar, icepack forgotten to get some work done. The boy took notice of her unique accent, he hadn't heard anything like it before. Once again he thought it was cute. "And I don't feel like wasting it by throwing it in your ugly mug! Now beat it bozo!" she bit, her teeth grit in a threatening manner. His leopard tail curled a little when he smiled at her bark and bite.

The guy flirting with her didn't like it as much however, "What'd you say to me?!" he growled as he got up from his stool and yanked the girl up by her arm as she gave a startled yelp dropping her drink. The Faunus boy sped up to get to them before Junior had to break out his bat and teach this guy a lesson. The girl didn't look scared but did look majorly peeved,

"Hey! Hands off the merchandise Baldy!" she snapped as she tore her arm free and wound up to slap him with it. The slime-ball caught he hand and was actually moving to punch her but the leopard Faunus boy caught his fist from behind him before he could make the move.

The guy looked back at him with a sneer but the boy kept his cool, "Hey now, let's not get crazy." He said as politely as he could to a jerk like this guy. "I'm not a neat-freak about manners but I suggest leaving the lady alone to do as she will while you get lost." He let go of the guy's arm with a growing glare on his face.

"How about you get lost kid, or else that tail's gonna be your noose." The thug threatened. The boy's long tail swished back and forth to show he was agitated; no one threatens the tail. This guy was practically begging for it, but the boy wouldn't break.

He just smiled and pressed the pads of his fingers together, "Sir I'm very flattered you'd think of me, but I'm sorry to say you'd better leave her alone and get going or I'll have to make you." His yellow-green eyes seemed to thin into slits at those words, but it could've been a trick of the light.

The guy seemed majorly peeved now. He stomped up into the boy's face and gave him a rough shove backwards, the boy had to plant his foot firmly so he wouldn't land on his butt. "What are you gonna do if I don't? Dumb animal." He spoke lowly in a gritty, gravelly tone. The boy's tail curled as he felt a very jungle-feline growl building up in his throat, but he only smiled and replied,

"I was hoping you'd ask."

Quick as lightning the Faunus boy pulled a glinting throwing dagger with a leather pommel from his tool belt and threw it with all his momentum at the sleaze-ball. It didn't actually cut him of course, his aim was too on point for that. But it did clip his shirt and pin him to the bar by his collar. The guy shouted in shock as he struggled under the knife, eventually gripping the pommel and yanking it from the counter and throwing it away with a metallic clatter. He was glaring up a storm now,

"You little punk! You'll pay for that!" he put two fingers to his lips and let lose a shrill whistle. At the sound about a dozen other men looking just as grizzly as the first looked up from their club activities, spotting the Faunus boy with more irritated glares. They all seemed to gather by the bar where said boy currently stood, all of them sporting terrible haircuts and snarling mugs. "Not so tough now are yah you little animal?" the guy grinned.

"Well…" the boy shrugged with a rather cocky smirk on his face. This seemed to really get under the thug's skin as he took a pretty amateur pistol from his belt loop and fired at the boy. But the leopard Faunus ducked out of the way and threw three knives in his direction. One clipping his hand so he dropped the gun, the other two slicing the sides of his face to shave off those dumb sideburns. Who chooses to go bald with sideburns anyway?! One of the guy's thug buddies charged toward the boy but he jumped and his boot-clad feet met the thug's shoulders knocking him back. The boy back flipped back onto his feet throwing another series of knives pinning the guy to the wall.

Another tried throwing several punches but the boy kept blocking them before he stepped forward and swung his leg into the guy's side, catching his fist in the process and judo-flipping him into another guy carrying a wooden bat. Where does Junior find these customers?! The guy stumbled over his friend but still managed to get to his feet and swing the bat at the boy's legs. He jumped over each swing like a game of double-dutch until he landed on top of the bat, catching the guy by surprise before punching him in the face. He was knocked out but the boy shook his hand in pain.

"Wow that hurts more than it looks!" he said as another thug charged him. The Faunus boy just unclipped another knife and the end pommel met the center of the guy's fat forehead. He made a cartoonish dazed face before falling to the floor, the boy catching his knife midair and slipping it back into his tool belt.

Thug #1 was still glaring, only difference now was he had taken shelter behind the bar, the red and black-haired girl oddly hadn't moved, and was contently sipping her drink without a care in the world. Although she did look intrigued by the fight. The guy snapped his fingers and just like that another round of jerks came to meet the boy on the dance floor. He doubted they just wanted to do the Cupid Shuffle. But the boy only shrugged again,

"Alright, you wanna play this game? I'm down." He gave the girl a polite salute before he literally disappeared into thin air! The thugs looked around stunned for a moment until behind one of them the boy reappeared and nudged him with his elbow. "Psst! What're we looking at?" he asked. The startled thug swung his fist but the tricky Faunus jumped back to avoid it. He blocked the guy's second punch and proceeded to knee him hard in the groin, the poor sap doubling over in pain. "Tag! You're it." The boy smirked. Another good with a crowbar swung it at his head but he ducked and disappeared again reappearing behind the guy and slamming his own weapon into his head. "Now you're it!"

More goons tried to bring the boy down one way or another but he kept beating them with snickers of "You're it!" "Now you!" "No you!" "Or maybe you're it!" etc. etc. The leader of this rather pathetic gang was getting fed up with this animal's games. The stupid Faunus just kicked another one of his men in the stomach when the thug grabbed what looked to be a mechanical metal bat from behind the bar and leapt over it stalking over to the filthy mongrel. The girl with the neon drink saw this and panicked a little,

"Watch out Puddin!" she squeaked. The ginger-haired boy looked up too late as Junior's stolen bat collided with his face knocking him to the floor with a startled and pained grunt. The sleaze stood over him with a sickeningly satisfied grin on his face, planting the end of the bat hard into the Faunus' stomach, the teen yelling in pain.

"Lights out kid." The goon sneered. The boy just gave a crooked smile as he pulled another knife,

"Yeah," he said, throwing it hard into the lights above them, the glass fixture exploding as the dagger made contact plunging the club into darkness. "Lights out." The emergency/late night power came on a second later, the dark lights casting the club in an eerie red glow. The boy for the first time that night scowled and leapt back to his feet before falling into a solid fighting stance. He launched knives in the direction of the scum bag, some of which were dodged, others not so much until he got really pissed and charged at the Faunus that screwed up his night.

The boy bent and planted his hands on the ground and vaulting his legs up and kicking the guy multiple times in the face until he stepped back and whipped a drivel of blood from his chin. The boy ran and jumped up planting a very hard kick to his chest before turning and throwing one last knife into his shirt, the blade exploding on contact and throwing the man back into the bar with a loud crash.

He made a move to get up but Junior, seemingly out of nowhere, grabbed his shoulders and slammed him back down. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to get this place cleaned up?!" he thundered. The club owner yanked his bat from the slime-ball's grasp and whacked him in the stomach with it before dragging him behind the bar and handcuffing him to the tap.

The boy's tail visibly relaxed as he sighed in relief. "Thanks Junior, I'll go take a look at that DJ booth now." He said brushing off his vest and adjusting his gloves before moving to head up to where Mark was hiding.

But before he could he felt a light but firm grip on his hand pull him back and turn him around, coming face to face with the girl in the red dress. Her little hart tattoo looked even cuter on her up close. "Why you leavin' so soon Puddin?" she asked, her smile sweet enough to make his heart beat a little faster.

"Puddin?" he asked, staring a little too long. The girl just smiled and chewed her lip in a flirtatious manner.

"You should take the rest'a the night off don't'cha think?" she asked, her big olive colored eyes anything but innocent despite her innocent smile. "How 'bout I get'cha a drink Puddin?" her voice was laced with sugar when she called him Puddin.

He glanced over at Junior; the guy was dialing up the cops for the sleazy bald guy and by the sound of it the DJ booth was working fine at the moment. And he did just beat up a bunch of guys for this girl. Eh… what the hell right?

"Uh… Sure!" he said as excitedly as he felt. The girl smiled again, her red lipstick somehow becoming even redder with her gleaming teeth. She looped her arm through his and pulled him with her onto the dance floor, a smile coming onto his lips too as his tail lashes back and forth to the rhythm of the music.

* * *

 **Batta bing batta bam this is the last of my trailers! the song for this lovely leopard Faunus is Ride My Beat by Polluted Mindz now onto the actual fanfic! until next time my dears! Bye!**


	5. Chapter 1: You Don't Act Like a Schnee

**Chapter 1: You don't Act like a Schnee**

 _Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past._

 _Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness – creatures of destruction – the creatures of Grimm – set their sights on man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void._

 _However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named "Dust"._

 _Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life. But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone... darkness will return._

 _So you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed... there will be no victory in strength._

* * *

Vale was rather peaceful during the day, people shopping in the city or wanting to catch a glimpse of Beacon in the distance. It also had a fair amount of delicious foods at many amazing restaurants.

 _Ding!_ "Order up!" the elderly man called. A waitress with short orange hair was waiting nearby and came to take the food to its respective customer. The old shopkeep prided himself on satisfying those who came for his services, not to mention his dust shop going out of business due to robberies got him into the culinary business. A Simple Wok was his second pride and joy, a fairly popular local restaurant in Vale with just as it advertised. Simple wok-made noodles. He smiled kindly as the waitress came to take another order to table 4 when the doorbell chimed.

"Shopkeep my old pal! So rude not to invite me to see your new place!" a smooth, cackling voice purred. The old shopkeeper visibly tensed at that voice, frozen in place before he slowly turned to face the cause of his nervousness. It was a tall man, hair slicked back with a fair share of product, a piercing in his right eyebrow, and a very unsettling smile on his face. Though his face suggested he was jovial and jocular, it did not reach his intense neon green eyes. "Why the long face man? Or is this a bad time?" the man asked as he approached the counter and leant an arm on it, the other hand firmly on his hip where a suggestive bump stuck out of his pants pocket. The shopkeeper didn't want to find out what it was.

"No of course not Mr. Moss, I-it's just t-that I-I…" the poor man began to stutter with fear, which only made Moss smile wider.

He lunged forward and slammed his hands down on the counter as loud as he could, startling the old man, as well as a waitress and a couple customers dining nearby. "Come on Shopkeep… I thought we were friends!" he smiled, his eyes mad as he gripped the lapel of the man's shirt and forced him to look him in the eye. "And if I'm not mistaken, you wouldn't even have this rat-infested stink-hole if not for me. And I think it's fair that **_friends…_** help each other out, no?" he growled in the man's face.

Shopkeep was clearly shaken up now; he refused to meet Moss' eyes for he knew there'd be no mercy there despite his misleading grin. "I'm sorry Mr. Moss, I swear I'll pay you back by the end of the month, I just need…"

Moss cut him off, "You need what?!" he barked. "More lien? I've got plenty! But you owe me plenty as well Sir! So just pay me back and you can keep your shop…" he leaned in real close and whispered softly as if to an infant. "Where. Is. My. Lien!" at the shout of his last word Moss shoved the old man into the wall with the force of an SUV. The man knocked over some décor on the counter including a vase that smashed on the floor getting the attention of a lot more people.

"Please, I beg you, just take my lien and leave me be," Shopkeep pleaded, this only made Moss smile wider. He drew back his arm and aimed to punch this old crack right in the kisser, but was softly interrupted by a quick little…

 _Ding!_

Moss' eyebrow twitched with annoyance when that stupid bell on the counter chimed, his intense violet gaze turning to see the one who so rudely interrupted him. What he saw was not what he expected; it was a girl. Teenager by the looks of her height, with ivory white hair pulled into an offset braid held up by a pair of silver chopsticks. Her eyes were two swirling icy pools of glacial blue that held a playful mirth to them, three small beauty marks adorning her pale face. One beneath her left eye, one at the peak of her right cheekbone, and another on the far side of her cute little chin. She also had a silver colored leather case held over her shoulder by a single strap fastened with smaller straps and buckles, a weapon perhaps?

Moss' irritation melted into hospitality as he let go of the shopkeeper's shirt and straightened his tie with a smile directed right at her. "Terribly sorry my dear, it's improper to expose a lady to violence." He said, his voice laced with suave and confidence. "But I'm afraid this conversation is exclusive and for certain eyes only. I think it'd be best for you to leave, less you want a bullet in your throat too?" his kind smile did not waver, even if his eyes were mad with bloodlust. And regular lust.

But the girl didn't flinch or walk quickly out if the restaurant, no she did something Moss did not expect from such a pretty little thing. The corner of her lips twitched upwards and she tapped her chin as if in deep thought,

"Aw, I was hoping to get some noodles, but I guess I can fit kicking your sorry butts into my schedule. But I'll have to check." She then pulled out her scroll and tapped through different apps like she was actually checking a schedule. His smile twitched and fell into a deep frown; pretty or not this little brat was disrespecting him.

"It's quite rude to show disrespect to your elders." He growled.

The girl looked up from her scroll and put it away with a playful smile. "So sorry, but this is my favorite restaurant in Vale, and I hate mafia narks ruining a peaceful meal. So I think it's more fitting that I ask you to leave before I kick your teeth in, sound fair?" she chirped imitating him from when he threatened Shopkeep.

He chuckled darkly, "You don't know what you just did to yourself Doll."

She didn't say anything, only shrugged with a smirk and much like our friend Moss, her smile spoke for her carefree attitude but her eyes were icy cold enough to throw Vale itself into a blizzard. Moss' eyes narrowed into slits as he grit his teeth hard and spoke in the most threatening voice this brat had probably ever heard,

"Who do you think you are?" he growled.

The teen only lifted her gloved hands to crack each knuckle in them, her smirk widening. "Why don't you come and find out?"

A silence filled the room before Moss looked to one of his men nodding towards the girl, his trusty henchmen getting the picture and grabbing his gun lunging at the girl. What Moss did not expect was for the girl to step back and grab his man's wrist twisting it hard to the left and side kicking him in the gut hard before turning and slamming the heel of her pretty white boot into the side of his skull. When his second man charged for her with his small but deadly switchblade the girl side stepped and reached back to grab the leather case over her shoulder. The black buckles clicked open and the silver fabric fell to the floor and from it she pulled a magnificent weapon that with the flip of a switch elongated from a short rod to a tall silver spear.

His men took tentative steps away from her as not to get shish-kabobbed, all for Moss who only snarled revealing more than a few gold teeth. "What're you a huntress or something?" he sneered. The whitette leaned on her spear like she was having a chipper conversation with friends, giving him a teasing wink before she fell into a fighting stance with a twirl of her weapon, his question going unanswered.

The man to his right; a lovely idiot whose name he could not bother to remember, must've read Moss' mind and lunged at the girl hoping to land a lucky punch in her pretty little face, unfortunately she deflected his hits with her spear before twirling it, sweeping his legs out from under him and slamming the blunt end into his chest sending him crashing into a table, the couple previously occupying it screaming and getting out of the way as fast as they could. The girl's quick feet flipped herself over the ruined dinner setting and she brought her spear up stabbing it into the ground using her body's momentum to lift herself off the ground and plant her ivory heel into another goon's face. He sputtered and fell back into some poor waitress making her drop her tray shattering about a dozen crystal china pieces.

Moss arched his pierced eyebrow as the girl stuck her landing, her weapon poised and deadly behind her back as she glared up an icy blue storm in his direction. He just turned to a now terrified Shopkeep and threw him a nod "Rein check Shopkeep, enjoy your evening." And with that Moss smashed the glass door and stepped through falling into a near sprint to his car. He managed to shove the key in the ignition and floor the gas by the time the girl emerged from the broken door.

She glared after him as his magenta sports car took off down the street. "Oh no you don't!" she ran out to the middle of the road, reaching behind her into the silver pouch attached to her belt. She pulled out a glowing green earth dust crystal, opening the barrel in the middle of her spear and loading the crystal with the telltale **_chick-chuck!_** of a shotgun.

The girl pointed her front and middle fingers and traced an invisible symbol before her, her white aura forming a glow around her hand and beneath her feet in the form of a snow white glyph with the appearance of a snowflake. She spun her spear with the whole of her body, using her aura to throw her into the asphalt, the head blade piercing the stone deep with the blast of a gunshot. The earth erupted from below her and rapidly moved, churning giant chunks of stone and mud heading for Moss' car. The gangster barely had time to glance in his rearview before a huge stalagmite of rock stabbed upward into the underside of the sports car, flipping the vehicle into an unlucky music shop, more people screaming and running in the process.

Moss tumbled out of the driver's seat looking like death, making the girl smirk at her handy work. She twirled her spear and fist pumped the air in triumph, "Whoo-hoo!" Moss could only groan incoherently.

Police sirens rang down the street not a minute later just as the girl was rewrapping her collapsed spear in its silver bag. She clicked the last buckle in place when two cops stalked up to her. "I caught the bad guys for you officers." She stated proudly gesturing her hand to Moss' flipped car, the downed gangster shouting in pain as he attempted to pulls himself free and failed.

The officers stopped for a moment to exchange glances; one nodded and the other pulled a pair of handcuffs from his belt. The first cop took the cuffs from him and stood behind the girl yanking her arms back and cuffing them much to her surprise. "Hey! What are you doing?! I'm not the bad guy, he is!" she pleaded as she nodded towards Moss who was being pried from the crashed vehicle by the other cop. His partner took her by the cuffs and started pulling her towards their car, completely ignoring her. "You have to listen to me I didn't do anything!" she said, a little louder this time.

"Yeah right, so who did all this damage eh? Jaws over there?" the girl frowned and started tugging back on her arms in an attempt to get this cop to let go. "Yeah that's what I thought." He added smugly as he opened the back door of his car. The girl was inwardly panicking; she couldn't go to jail, she was just starting to get her footing in this city and she couldn't have her name being put in the police records!

In a complete spur of the moment, the teenager slammed her heel into the cop's foot and jerked backwards, the back of her head colliding with his nose. The cop let go of her arms to grip his now broken nose with a pain-filled cry, the girl kicking him in the shin and leaping over her arms so they were in front of her rather than chained behind her back. The cop helping Moss dropped the criminal and pulled his officer's pistol aiming for her. She lifted her arms when a gunshot rang out, his bullet meant for her head clipped the chain connecting her handcuffs in two.

With her hands free, she gave the cop a two-finger salute and took off running down an alleyway shoving civilians aside aggressively in order to be consumed by the crowd. She darted in between sidewalks and behind buildings to evade those cops who no doubt were not far behind.

"Stop in the name of the law!"

And… there they are. The whitette ran faster ducking through an alley and coming out to face an old warehouse. Realizing she'd run all the way from downtown Vale to the docks. She took a moment to look around making sure those cops were nowhere in sight. Not seeing anybody, she sighed with relief and began to walk away.

That was until a bola came out of nowhere and wrapped around her legs making her hit the ground faster than she could blink with a loud thud.

"Got her!" the partner cops ran up and quickly cuffed her hands behind her back again with those constricting strips of thick plastic instead of the metal ones. She struggled plenty but one of them sat on top of her, and the bola coils around her legs made it impossible to get anywhere anytime soon. "You're going away for a while hon." On of them mocked.

She'd been caught; she realized this with a puff of her cheeks as her face laid on the pavement with a defeated pout. "Great."

* * *

The white-haired girl sat impatiently in her holding cell while the police processed her name and paperwork. Of course, she didn't give them her real name, her real name wasn't even in any records anymore. So she just spurted out the first name that came to mind and they seemed to believe her. She laid on the bench in the cinderblock room with her feet propped up vertically on the wall and her head hanging upside-down, her braid in a small pile on the floor.

A few cops passed her cell escorting Moss, the gangster sporting a lot of glass shard wounds in his face and a busted lip. "Come on man I know my rights!" he complained as he squirmed in his handcuffs, spotting the girl in the cell a moment later. "Just keep this crazy kid away from me!" the cop chose to escort faster, the girl behind bars rolling her eyes and continuing to fire birds at pigs on her scroll. They'd confiscated her weapon and dust rounds but left her with her scroll at least, so she wasn't bored. But the battery was almost depleted so it wouldn't last long.

"Jaqueline Crescent?" her fake name was addressed as a cop held open the cell door with a clipboard that no doubt had her paperwork on it. She righted herself and walked towards the officer, him holding the door open for her, as she was lead to the interrogation room. It was a medium sized room with a matching metal table and pair of chairs, the only source of light being a single lamp on the table already turned on. She took a seat in the chair farthest from the door and the cop left, letting her prop her boots up on the table in the empty room alone.

Five whole minutes had ticked away by the time someone came into the room and took a seat across from her. He had aged grey hair and some weird looking glasses resting on the end of his nose, he set his mug of coffee on the metal table with a kind smile sent in the girl's direction. To any other kid he could've just been a random parole officer, but he wasn't that at all.

This girl knew exactly who he was. She immediately took her feet off the table.

He smiled as if he appreciated it and picked up a tablet he'd set down next to his mug. "Jaqueline Crescent, was it?" he asked, his voice smooth and meant to be soothing like honey, but it only made the girl bristle like she were a child caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing. He just smiled, "Forgive me, but wouldn't you prefer to tell me your _real_ name?"

The girl tensed, so he did know who she was, but why was he beating around the bush and being so… _nice?!_

Against her better judgment, she gave in. Lying to this man was practically impossible anyway.

"Wanda." She answered briefly. The man nodded telling her silently that she had chosen the right answer.

"That's quite a lovely name, no last name?" once again she did not give a reply.

 _Don't answer. He's just being nice so he can dangle something in front of your face and then throw you into a real jail cell! Although he isn't known for doing that… crap! He's looking at you! Say something stupid…_

"Why are you here?" she asked quickly.

The man took a sip of his coffee before answering, "I'm simply curious as to why such a lovely young lady was arrested for public violence, destruction of property, criminal assault-" she interrupted before he could continue, slamming her hands on the table and springing up from her chair.

"That wasn't my fault! That wannabe Joker was busting up some poor old man's shop!"

He took another sip from his mug and set it down calmly. "According to this amateur footage, you did quite a bit of… _busting up,_ yourself Wanda." The girl, now known as Wanda, blushed and sat back down, finding her twiddling fingers much more interesting now. The man continued, "You have quite a bit of skill, did you happen to attend combat school?"

"No." she snipped.

"Hm… outside training perhaps?"

"I learned from a friend." She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to meet his honey-colored eyes. This seemed to be the retort he was looking for,

"Impressive friend." He casually observed. She had no response for that and continued to stare at the wall beside them. "Seems you and I have similar taste in friends no?" at this Wanda perked up. She'd been doing fine on her own, and was not ready to go back to her friend like a failure. Not yet. So what was this man's game? She glanced at him from the corner of her eye when he set the tablet down and intertwined his fingers, just looking at her waiting for a reply.

"Guess so." She finally answered, for once not being clipped and rude.

For the first time since he came into the room, she noticed him holding an ornate white box wrapped up with a delicate little matching bow in his palm. He set it on the table and slid it over until it was right before her. She looked at him with an arched eyebrow silently asking what it was, but he simply smiled and glanced at the box urging her to open it.

 _Is this how he gets people? Loosening them up with idle small talk and gifts before he makes his move? If he is here to arrest me then I'm not falling for it! But if he's here to bail me out… I should be in his good graces._

Logic winning over pride, Wanda slowly pulled the ribbon loose on the box and opened it up, never once breaking eye contact with the man and him never dropping his kind smile. She glanced down into the box, glacial eyes widening and her jaws slackening in shock. Amongst the shiny pillowed paper lining the inside of the box, were three small spheres of red and gold that had been melted together to form a smooth shell.

It was… candy.

Caramel Apple Petites, a candy sold exclusively in Atlas. Wanda hadn't had one since she was four, but they'd always and forever be her favorite treat. She looked the man dead in the eye asking if he was being serious, his smile didn't waver much to her annoyance. How did this person possibly know about her love for this candy? Then again, he knew lots of things, about lots of people.

Wanda took a petite from the box and, though hesitantly at first, popped it into her mouth. The hard candy shell broke apart and melted as bursts of sour and sweet danced across her tongue. She smiled and nearly shivered from the sugary bliss, quickly consuming the other two petites once the flavor faded from her taste buds.

The man spoke as soon as she finished licking the remaining sticky candy shell bits from her fingers, "Wanda, do you know who I am?"

Wanda looked him up and down, so far, they'd only been wild guesses, but after receiving a rather expensive candy that only she could recognize and love, it seemed her suspicions were right.

"Professor Ozpin, headmaster of the prestigious Huntsmen/Huntress academy of Beacon?" she leant her cheek on her palm and spoke as if it was a question. Ozpin gave a nod,

"Indeed, nice to meet you." He greeted politely.

"Likewise."

Ozpin tapped a few commands into his scroll tablet, being slightly reluctant to show her whatever was on it, but confidently placed it on the table where the box of apple petites once was. Wanda looked down at it to see some sort of mirror app staring back at her. White hair, blue eyes… only the girl in the mirror had no beauty marks, and a long vertical scar adorning her left eye in a perfect line. It took her a waning moment to realize it wasn't a mirror at all.

It was a photo.

Wanda instantly tensed, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and her heart begin to race, like a basic animal instinct screaming _Run!_ Despite the headmaster noticing this he continued,

"Do you know who this is, Wanda?" she almost snapped at him for asking stupid questions, but yelling at the all-powerful head of Beacon would most likely be a bad decision so she bit her tongue and opted for answering short and sweet like always.

"Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company, not really into politics but last I heard she was going to Atlas, the huntsman school in Mantle." Wanda said as nonchalantly as she could muster.

Ozpin watched as she drummed her fingers and didn't meet his eyes, "You've head wrong."

Her fingers stood still at that, "Huh?" she stuttered, slightly taken aback by this fact.

With another sip of his coffee he explained, "The heiress to the SDC won't be attending Atlas Academy. I received her transcripts a few weeks ago, Weiss will be attending Beacon these next four years." Wanda had zoned out once he said Weiss and Beacon; Weiss couldn't go to Beacon! She was supposed to Atlas and get accustomed to military stuff and maybe take over her father's company when she was ready. But not Beacon. Not Vale. Not anywhere near her!

"Miss Schnee? Miss Schnee are you listening?"

It took Wanda a minute to snap out of it and notice Ozpin trying to talk to her again. "Sorry what?" in a split second she realized her mistake and gripped the sides of her metal chair like a vice. Ozpin just smiled warmly, and though it was meant to be calming, it just caused a thin layer of sweat to form on Wanda's brow.

Ozpin held up his tablet with the picture of Weiss still pulled up and held it up like a before and after show. "The resemblance is quite astonishing isn't it?" he observed. It was true, aside from the beauty marks and lack of a scar, and the way they wore their hair, Wanda Schnee and her sister were carbon copies of each other. "Sisters… Twins, I'm assuming?" he asked as he set the tablet back down and replaced it with his coffee mug, the sipping noise being the only sound in the room aside from the electronic buzz of the lamp.

Wanda looked up from her interlocked fingers to stare at him, looking for some sign that this was a trick or a scam and she wouldn't have to feel so… _relaxed_ and _secure_ around a complete stranger she'd only ever been told about. But she only saw warm and understanding honey brown eyes behind glasses.

"Please don't tell anyone." When the words came out of her lips, they were barely a mutter.

Ozpin nodded with that kind smile, "As I've said already Miss Schnee, you have skill. And where there's skill there is potential, and in you I see almost too much of it that is being wasted. In fact just two weeks ago I saw transcripts for Beacon listed in your name as well."

"Yeah, my friend wanted me to join."

"As it so happens, I know your friend quite well, and you've shown me the same skill and drive he says you have. So I would like to personally invite you to attend my school in hopes you'll rethink your stance on the matter." His eyes had latched onto hers almost willing her telepathically to agree, but Wanda only crossed her arms and sighed.

"You want me to kill Grimm too huh?"

"Precisely."

"No offense, but I'm not interested." If she wanted to be blunt, she was going to be blunt, no use sugar coating anything around Ozpin. He took a sip from his coffee; how the mug could still be full was one of the universe's many mysteries.

"How about I offer you a deal Miss Schnee," he said. "I get you out of this jail and convince the authorities to drop any and all charges against you, in exchange for your place at Beacon Academy. Sound fair?"

If Wanda ever wished she didn't have a tell, now was the time. She visibly perked up at the mention of her getting off scot free, even if in her opinion she was helping more than hurting, though Simple Wok would disagree. The temptation was very strong, but at the same time was she willing to sign over herself to Beacon to become a huntress and abandon her quest for four years? She'd only been on her own for a few months, and it would help to have a base of operations and not sleep under a park bridge anymore too.

"And if I say no?" she asked, trying her best to be intimidating.

It wasn't very effective against Oz. He smiled again, this time it was more like a smirk of amusement. "Then I hope your holding cell was quite comfortable, I hear vandalism, assault and all the other things you've been charged for can rack up rather fast in jail time. Six months at least."

"Six _months?!_ " Wanda interrupted, her voice sewn with disbelief.

"Or so I've heard."

A frown etched itself into her porcelain features as she glared at him, but he remained stoic and simply offered her his hand. "Do we have a deal?" he asked.

Wanda looked at it distastefully, still not one hundred percent sure whether or not to trust Ozpin. He was offering her a one-way ticket out of the slammer, but was also making her attend the school she'd been trying to avoid in exchange. It was either Beacon or jail at this point, and Wanda wasn't stupid enough to choose jail.

She swallowed her pride and shook his hand.

"Deal."

* * *

True to his word Ozpin had taken care of everything; Wanda was released from holding with a warning, and now she was sitting on an airship headed right for Beacon. She guessed she should've considered herself lucky that the headmaster did such a huge favor for her, even if the favor was for someone else to keep her out of trouble, but forgive her for not feeling in the mood for boot kissing.

She grabbed the last window seat and plopped into it, her navy duffle occupying the seat next to her filled with essentials she'd need; clothes, dust, ammo, that's about it really. Feeling her stomach growl she decided to grab a power bar or something, this ship had snack machines right? They'd better. Wanda was about three meters in range of what looked well enough like a snack machine when another body collided with hers making her drop her lien on the floor.

"Hey watch it!" she snapped, ice woven into her words. She caught a glimpse of her obstacle spotting a mop of yellow hair as he stumbled away muttering his apologies through his hands. She blew her bangs from her eyes and picked up her money, inserting it into the machine and choosing a simple bag of pretzel twists to hold her over for now.

She pulled open the bag and lifted a pretzel to her mouth when she heard two girls talking, "Oh! Yang, gross, you have puke on your shoe!" Wanda looked over her shoulder and spotted two girls, one with blond hair the other with a crimson cloak; true to the shorter one's word the blond girl did have vomit on the toe of her boot, prompting a small freak-out from the more buxom of the two. She threw her gaze back over to tall, blond, and stumbling who looked like he was in desperate need of a bucket. Feeling paranoid she looked down at her own boots hoping not to see any vomit staining them. To her relief, she was good.

Wanda began to return to her seat when she caught ear to the two girls again, something about home and the view they had from their standpoint. Huh, they must be friends, or sisters. She crunched on a pretzel a bit bitterly at that thought.

 _Must be nice._

Sinking down into her seat once more she pulled up the collar of her bomber to better hide her face, lest she run into Weiss on this ship. The likelihood of not meeting her in the next four years was slim at best. They were already in the same grade. What if they were in the same class? Or worse, what if they ended up on the same _Team?!_ She shook her head and ate another pretzel. Thinking about it would do her no good, better to just throw the dice and deal with it. Wanda smirked at that; sounds like something her friend would say.

She sighed and opted for leaning back in her seat and enjoying the view, much unlike that blond boy. The Emerald Forest surrounded the castle that was Beacon Academy, with its Medieval spires and the colossal tower in the center of it all. Wanda chuckled thinking it looked like a huge messenger beacon. The beacon of Beacon. Beneath the cliff it rested on, a waterfall connected the stone wall to a huge lake at the bottom. Water for miles like a small ocean separating the school from the rest of Vale.

 _Guess that's my home for the next four years, huh?_

Wanda crunched the last pretzel in the bag and watched her new life inch closer one mile at a time.

* * *

 **Ta-da! Chapter 1 of this story is finished! I hope you enjoy Wanda, i'll leave you guys to guess who she's based off of. But in case I made it a bit difficult i'll give you a hint: How many characters do you know with white hair with a staff-like weapon with plenty of sass to go around, but doesn't wear a red bomber in favor of a blue hoodie? That is all i'll say for now. Guess your answers in your reviews. Tootaloo!**


	6. Chapter 2: The Shining Beacon

**Chapter 2: The Shining Beacon Pt. 1**

By the time the ship docked Wanda had already eaten a second bag of pretzels and some fruit gummies. She hoisted her duffle over her shoulder and exited the air ship with everyone else, her collar still pulled up so she wouldn't draw attention. On her way down the exit ramp she spotted that blond boy from earlier, his face in a trash can as he barfed up the contents of his stomach. Wanda cringed in disgust and made sure to walk away from him, lest she end up like that well-endowed girl with puke on her shoes.

Once the soles of her boots touched the cobblestone walkway she took notice of the picturesque view of Beacon up close. It truly was a castle, the fortress of Vale, just the outside nearly took her breath away. It took her a moment to realize she'd been staring for a good few minutes, and everybody else had probably proceeded to the ballroom, where there was supposed to be a big welcome speech or something. Wanda sighed, kind of hating how new everything was. Sure it was a hundred-year-old building and all that, but to her it was all new.

New school, new identity; Ozpin let her information be changed to Jaqueline Crescent until she changed it to otherwise, new life goals, new _everything._

She blew the bangs away from her face and took a step towards her new life…

Only to step on a cat's tail.

The cat screeched in pain and alarm successfully scaring the crap out of Wanda, she loudly cursed and stepped back a flash of grey darting around her legs before running off in another direction.

"Persephone!" a voice cried. Wanda regained her bearings to see the grey blur, the cat, barreled into the legs of a girl with long blue hair pulled into a high ponytail, a gold chain with a blue jewel dangling from her bangs. The girl picked up her cat and scratched her behind the ears until it started purring and pushing its head into her palm. "Are you okay?" she asked, apparently to the cat. Said feline only purred some more in response before wiggling out of its owner's arms and settling by her feet rubbing against her leg affectionately. The girl looked up to meet Wanda's eyes, having the look of a kicked puppy. Err… cat.

"Why would you step on her?"

The whitette was suddenly flooded with guilt, "It was an accident! I swear I didn't mean to!" her face burned with embarrassment and she could feel a sweat drop forming on her brow. Expecting those huge blue eyes to be full of tears, Wanda was a bit surprised when the girl let out a jingling giggle accompanied by a warm and reassuring smile.

"It's okay, Persephone isn't mad." She chirped, the feline at her feet meowing as if acknowledging its own name. The girl giggled again and scratched her pet behind the ears earning more purrs from the animal, her laugh sounding like those little bells you'd find on a wind chime. Wanda glanced down at the girl's pet; silver fur with darker grey stripes and green eyes that were locked onto her own icy blue ones, like they were looking right _through_ her. The cat looked _hungry._ It gave her the creeps.

"That your cat's name?" she asked the girl, wanting to distract herself from those weird eyes. The girl didn't seem to notice and smiled again with a nod of her head.

"Mmhm!" she leaned in cupping her hand beside her mouth as if she was sharing a secret, "Pets aren't allowed at Beacon but…" she looked from side to side before continuing, "I pulled out a favor, plus I never go anywhere without her." The girl reached down taking the cat in her arms again and opening up her army-brown tote bag hanging at her hip. "Speaking of," she mused before carefully settling Persephone into the bag, the feline wiggling before finding a comfortable position and settling in the bag. The girl pulled the flap over her completely concealing her pet. She turned back to Wanda and smiled.

Wanda was about to ask about the favor she described, and if it had anything to do with Ozpin, when she caught a quick whiff of something… burning?

 ** _BOOM!_**

The blue haired girl squeaked and Wanda cursed aloud again at the sound of the explosion that combusted two people twenty feet away. The pair turned to see what caused the explosion and saw a girl in a red cape – the same one Wanda saw on the air ship – and a girl with a long white ponytail obscured to the right side of her head. Wanda's stomach dropped like a metal brick.

 _Weiss Schnee._

In the flesh. And soot.

She barely registered the fact that her sister was covered in soot and yelling at the red-cloaked girl in a rage, something about dust and her being a dolt. Wanda took nervous steps back, watching as Weiss scoffed loudly storming off in another direction. She did not want to take any chances of being seen. If her twin didn't see her, the other two girls would. Where did that girl in the bow even come from?!

"Well uh… I gotta go, bye!" not giving the blue-haired girl an explanation she turned and took off running away from where her sister stomped off to, as far away as she could get. The girl she'd been talking too seemed slightly taken aback by her sudden change in demeanor, cocking her head to the side in confusion.

"Oh… okay? I hope I see you during initiation!" her mood brightened back into being cheerful and jingly again, giving Wanda a wave as she kept running. Once the whitette disappeared from view Persephone managed to wiggle her head out of her owner's bag and look up at her. The girl looked back at her cat and said. "She seems nice."

Persephone meowed.

Wanda didn't stop running even when her chest burned and her legs felt like jelly; she knew this was a terrible idea! Maybe jail would've been better after all, maybe then she wouldn't have to be in constant fear of meeting her sister and have the whole lid blown off her life! She was starting to seriously regret ever letting Ozpin into her head, letting him convince her to come here, where she'd be seen and figured out by Weiss in two seconds flat! How could she have been such a dolt!

 ** _Clang!_**

She didn't register anything until Wanda realized she was on the cobblestone ground with blurry vision and a sprouting headache, seeing a fuzzy figure of red and bronze above her. It took her a minute to realize she hadn't been looking where she was going and had run smack into somebody wearing more than enough bronze armor. It took her another minute to realize the person of interest was talking to her.

"I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" the mystery redhead asked.

Wanda shook her head to clear away the dizziness, "Shouldn't I be saying that? I ran into you…" she noticed the tall beauty extend her gloved hand to her, so she took her hand and hoisted herself to her feet. She dusted off her skirt and adjusted her chopsticks when the girl replied,

"Even so, I'm deeply sorry; I wasn't quite paying attention and…"

"Red!" a high-pitched voice interrupted her. A girl with a head of bouncy black and cherry red curls appeared at the side of her armor-clad companion, gloved hands on her shapely hips and a black heart tattooed beneath one of her olive colored eyes. Wanda looked back and forth between the two and thought of one of those 80's sitcoms about pairs of friends who were as opposite as can be. The girl in armor had her crimson locks pulled into a tidy ponytail topped off with a bronze headpiece. Her long skirt trail brushing the ground by her metal boots. She looked like a warrior, while her friend looked like she was a beauty queen more than a huntress in training.

High heeled combat boots with gold laces, except one boot was black and the other red. This same pattern of color matched her leggings, three black hearts at the ankle of her right leg, three red at the thigh of her left. Her matching dress also showed a fair amount of her generous chest that Wanda was _not_ slightly jealous of. It was probably the one thing these two girls had in common.

The olive-eyed girl looped her arm with her friend and spoke again in an accent Wanda had never heard before. It was high pitched and maybe a bit country? She wondered where this girl was from to get an accent like that. "Come on Red, we gotta' find the ballroom or we'll miss Ozzy's big speech I hear he does!" she squealed, tugging on the redhead's arm slightly.

The girl, Red, smiled in amusement. "Don't worry Circe, we'll make it on time. I was just introducing myself to…" Red turned and looked at Wanda expectantly.

"Wanda." She answered, the girl's speech so refined she half considered throwing in a curtsey for good measure.

The warrior smiled appreciatively, "Hello Wanda, my name's Pyrrha." She touched her chest before gesturing to her friend. Wanda remembered her as, "This is Circe," Pyrrha sounded like she was about to say more but Circe lunged forward taking the whitette hand and shaking it with wild abandon.

"Circe Hart, nice tah meet'cha Wandie!" when she finally let go of her hand Wanda was dizzy again.

"It's Wanda," she corrected, blinking once more to regain focus.

Circe looked confused for a moment, though a smile was still plastered on her unusually flawless red lips. "What did I say?" she asked. Wanda cocked her head slightly silently asking if the girl was serious, when she realized she was she already didn't care.

"Never mind," she shrugged. "So, you said something about a ballroom? Mind showing a newb where it is?" Wanda shoved her hands into her jacket pockets, a habit she picked up and showed when she was feeling shy.

Pyrrha either didn't notice or didn't care and smiled again, "Right this way," she said, sounding like a cheerful tour-guide. Not that it was a bad thing. The two girls in red began walking towards the main building with Wanda following close behind, Circe having a slight skip in her step as she hummed a tune rather loudly. Once they were walking through the actual grounds of the school, complete with trees planted here and there and perfectly planted shrubbery lining the sidewalk.

"So are you from around here?" Pyrrha asked. Wanda considered telling her the truth for a second her voice was so smooth and calm, but came to her senses and answered with yet another lie.

"Yeah, I've lived in Vale my whole life." It was such a blatant fib she almost cringed. Almost. They reached a large pair of ornate double-doors, both of them propped open into a huge open room filled with people. Huntsmen/Huntress students to be exact all crowded in the ballroom waiting for the headmaster. The two crimsonettes walked forward without any hesitation, but Wanda found her feet not obeying her. She was frozen before this huge new chapter of her life that was almost literally thrown in front of her previous path. Not so much a fork in the road as a giant fallen tree preventing her from taking any other route than the one Ozpin offered her.

Wanda looked down at her boots, then back up at the awaiting room containing a future on a silver platter. Even if she wasn't sure if it was the future she wanted.

Beacon or Jail…

Jail or Beacon…

 _I guess my choice is Beacon._


	7. Chapter 3: The Shining Beacon Pt 2

**Chapter 3: The Shining Beacon Pt. 2**

Wanda's feet moved on their own, pulling her into the ballroom full of people who actually _wanted_ to be huntsmen and huntresses. Unlike her, who only signed up so the headmaster could pay her bail. She shouldn't be a huntress, _It's the opposite of what you wanted… so why are you here. You could've waited six months no problem… but then…_

"Hello?! Anybody home?!" Circe screeched into her ear knocking on her head like the neighbors door for some sugar. Wanda jumped and waved her arms as if swatting at a bug that just buzzed in her eardrum or in this case the equivalent to trumpet music. Said trumpet burst into a fit of manic laughter at Wanda's reaction, Pyrrha giving her a look of sympathy.

"Sorry about that, Circe can be… eccentric." She explained.

The whitette blinked at the still cackling girl in red, "Yeah, I noticed."

"Come on Red I wanna get us a pair of front row seats!" Circe tugged on her companion's arm again, much like a young child would do with their mother.

The redhead nodded, "I suppose we'll talk more later?" Wanda nodded and smiled when they started walking deeper into the crowd.

Circe fluttered her fingers in a wave, "See yah round Wandie!" Wanda ignored the second mispronunciation of her name and just smiled, as obviously fake as it was they both bought it and returned it. She walked off into the hoard of people, tugging up her collar again, the action already becoming a normality. Already she was regretting morphing into the crowd; she hated crowds. In the process of wiggling out towards the wall, Wanda just crossed her fingers she didn't run into…

 _"You!"_

 _Crap!_ Without thinking, she ducked and hid behind a massive marble pillar in a flash of white at the sound of her sister's voice, thinking she'd been spotted and was in for a long and excruciating interrogation involving many different subjects she desperately wanted to skip. _This is it, I'm done for!_ She thought, inwardly panicking as sweat visibly formed on her temple, her eyes screwed and shut tight.

 _"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of a cliff!"_ she heard Weiss bark. _Cliff? What is she talking about?_ She peeped open one ice blue orb expecting her twin to be there looking livid, but instead was greeted by an empty space where her sister would've been. Confused, Wanda peered around her cylindrical hiding space, seeing her ivory-haired double scowling deeply and scolding the blond and red-hooded girls from the air-ship. Something about Dust for dummies and explosions? Wanda fell back against the column with a sigh of relief. _Safe for now._

How did this keep happening? She kept making it her mission to avoid Weiss at all costs, now she was seeing her out of the corner of her eye every ten seconds? _What the H karma?! What did I do to displease you?!_ Wanda looked down at her boots in deep thought; if this kept up Weiss would no doubt start to notice her own doppelgänger, and questions would be asked. Questions Wanda was not at all ready to answer. About where she'd been all this time, and… about what happened that day…

Wanda snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a microphone being tapped, a familiar voice alerting the crowd of his presence on stage. The whitette looked up at Ozpin standing with his telltale cane in front of the speaker, a blond woman in a cape standing not too far off to his side.

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and began, "I'll… keep this brief." Wanda looked up at him and blinked. Sure, she hadn't known him that long, but he seemed vastly different now than he had when he bailed her out of jail. Then he had been patient and warm, now he seemed a bit more… distant. Serious. Not to be trifled with. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge…" Wanda rolled her eyes at that. "…to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." _I don't know about **dedicate** , people-protecting definitely would be a plus… _"But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far." His eyes met Wanda's for a fraction of a second before it was gone, making her question if it was ever there at all. "It is up to you to take the first step."

He gave a nod to the students before walking off the stage, the blond woman coming forward then, explaining how everyone would be in the ballroom tonight. Wanda's eye twitched at that; _Here in the ballroom? Like on the floor or something? I guess it's better than sleeping in a cell._ She thought, blowing her bangs from her face with an exasperated huff. _Let's hope that turns out to be true._

* * *

Later when the sun had long since gone down and all the first year initiates were preparing to go to sleep, Wanda sat on her cot in her faded blue hoodie and black boy-shorts, the hood pulled up over her loose waterfall of white hair hopefully hiding all of her face. She could almost _feel_ Weiss' presence not even twenty feet away, she sister brushing through her own wintry tresses with trained strokes in Wanda's peripheral vision. She attempted to pay attention to the game of Flappy-Nevermore she was currently losing, but the raised hairs on the back of her neck she got from her twin was ruining her concentration. She eventually gave up and put her scroll away and settled for looping locks of white around her fingers.

She startled when a familiar grey blur jumped into her lap, rumbling with her purrs as she settled on the girl's thighs. Persephone meowed looking her host dead in the eyes again, "Why are you so weird?" Wanda asked, feeling odd talking to a cat. The feline just blinked and stared at her giving no reply, the owner of the lap she occupied just rolled her eyes and scratched her behind the ears, drawing more rumbling vibrations from her lithe fluffy body.

"Persephone? You over here?" a familiar voice called out in a straining whisper. Wanda spotted the blue-haired girl, in a cropped sky colored tank and darker bell-bottom pants, her long hair gathered up in a plait thrown over her shoulder. "Oh! It's you again, hello." She chirped, cerulean eyes spotting Wanda and sitting next to her on her mat.

Persephone meowed and climbed into her owner's lap as soon as she sat down. Wanda couldn't help herself and smiled when the girl giggled whenever her cat would push her head up under her chin in a clear show of affection, something about this person just seemed to push away all the heaviness she'd been feeling lately. Around this girl she felt lighter, happier, as if this girl could be happy and cheerful about killing monsters that are humanity's greatest enemy and threat than maybe things weren't so bad, at least from her perspective.

But you can't throw that out to any random stranger, so she settled for; "Your cat is pretty cute." The girl smiled, being as kind and as gentle as she was hours ago when Wanda stepped on the same cat.

"Thank you, I'm Kaia." She chimed lightly, holding out the hand that wasn't scratching Persephone's ears for the whitette to shake. Wanda smiled back and shook her hand,

"Wanda,"

The blue-haired girl, now given the name Kaia, continued, "I never got to ask you, have we met before? I feel like I've seen you from somewhere," Wanda tensed again, her gaze quickly darting to Weiss and back again before the girl even noticed, she stuttered for a moment before nervously tugging down on her hood and twirling the drawstrings between her forefinger and thumb.

"Uh… N-no, I don't think so, sorry." The words were shoved out of her mouth before she could think of an excuse, like word-barf. Kaia stared at her and tapped her chin, her eyes penetrating her and seeing past her into her soul like her pet's had not so long before. To be honest it was very different from her normal calming and compassionate personality. Her eyes closed and when they opened the look was gone in an instant, no remnants of it seen in her ocean-orbs at all. "My mistake, I've met so many people today so don't take me seriously." Kaia waved her hand to dismiss it, leaving Wanda a bit more guarded around her.

"O…kay? So uh… you seem like a real animal lover right?" she asked, clinging at straws in order to change the subject. Kaia meanwhile could easily read Wanda's discomfort when asked anything about where she was from so she decided to bite her hook and talk about herself instead.

Persephone purred in agreement before she replied, "Yep, I love nature, I had a garden back home but I had to leave it when I came here. I hope it's okay…" she trailed off worrying about her herbs and other greens that needed constant care. Luckily she brought a few pots in her bag so she'd be able to start a new garden at Beacon! "My grandmother taught me everything about plants and their uses, there's this one violet orchid that can heal burns, and a type of yellow root that can cure any common cold."

"That sounds awesome, you'd be really valuable in the field." Wanda said, clearly impressed by her knowledge of healing. Kaia didn't mean to but her smile faded into a frown filled with sorrow; _I guess I would be valuable wouldn't I…_ she really didn't want to be bitter but she couldn't help it, she didn't _want_ to be valuable.

It felt slightly smothering to be wanted for so many reasons by so many people all the time, whether to help or harm it didn't really matter. Kaia was a person with simple needs; her cat, her stereo, and her garden were all she ever felt she truly needed in her life to be happy and fulfilled, people needing her was a concept she was still new to, even after five years of it.

"Yeah… I guess I am," she finally responded, suddenly feeling rather shy as she played with the frayed end of her plait. Wanda looked like she wanted to ask more questions, make small talk and delude from herself, but the sound of girls shouting and arguing caused them both to look over at the other end of the ballroom.

Kaia didn't give them much thought; three girls arguing about nothing while the fourth girl looked like she was trying to read peacefully. Her new friend however tugged her hood down until it was covering almost all of her face, it was then she started noticing similarities between Wanda and one of the shouting girls. Simple things she could only see from her vantage point; hair color, face shape, their relative paleness, maybe they knew each other?

"Someone you know?" she asked rather nosily, the hoodie-clad girl looked up at her in a way that scarcely resembled fear, as if she had asked a question that under no circumstances was to be asked. Wanda didn't answer for a long time,

"Yeah… kinda," she didn't meet her eyes when she answered, Kaia could sense hesitation and could see the way Wanda tensed up from a mile away. Clearly whomever the still shouting white-haired girl was, Wanda didn't want to be involved with or even be noticed by her. She often forgot that people had enemies or demons with people many times I the outside world; Kaia had only ever had her family, and even they didn't last very long. She'd never had friends growing up, yet she'd always wondered, so staying away from people on purpose was still such a foreign concept in itself.

Despite her picking up on Wanda's reluctance, she replied anyway, "Maybe you'll see each other during initiation?" she could've sword she saw the girl flinch. she saw her fiddle with her scroll, most likely setting an alarm for tomorrow morning or perhaps a game, before she turned away from Kaia altogether, laying down on her mat and ending their chat at that.

"I hope not." She clipped before falling silent. Persephone followed her example and curled up in her owner's lap before promptly falling asleep, said owner confused beyond belief. She knew she had no right to be nosy and invade Wanda's privacy but what could possibly cause her to avoid the other whitette to such extreme lengths as hiding her own face?

Kaia sighed and decided to question it more tomorrow; initiation was starting at 9:00am, so they had to be sharp. Her questions could wait. She laid down on her own cot careful of her feline companion and closed her oceanic eyes, settling into slumber.

Wanda sighed, still awake by the time Kaia fell asleep, twirling curls of white nervously and dreading the morning to come.

Someone blew out the last candle, plunging the room into darkness as she whispered her last words for the night,

"I really do…"


	8. Chapter 4: The First Step

**Chapter 4: The First Step Pt. 1**

The light filled the ballroom quicker than he thought as the leopard Faunus blinked awake and stretched. Bones popping and muscles expanding as he took in a huge yawn much like the jungle cat of his ancestry. It wasn't until now that he noticed his chest felt heavier than normal, his eyes finally adjusting to the morning light, the boy's yellow-green irises fell on a very familiar figure of black and red. With a heart beneath her eye.

"Hi Puddin!" she squealed happily, resting her elbows on his bare chest and her chin on the palms of her hands. The boy's eyes visibly widened to the size of saucers as he pushed her off him and sprung to his feet in record time.

"Gah! It's you!"

"You don't look happy to see me," her bottom lip jutted out slightly as she pouted, still on the floor looking unusually snazzy for just waking up, but that might just have been her rather… skimpy pajamas. But after their night at Just Right, completely kid friendly and consensual, he found he could actually keep a conversation going with this girl. She had plenty of interesting stories and things to say, yet hung on his every word as if they were words from a heavenly deity.

"No, it's not that! You just… snuck up on me is all…" He had a nasty habit of scratching the back of his head when he was nervous, a tick that did not fail him now. Her scarlet lips reformed their pearly smile.

"You know I never did catch your name after all our fun, that hurts my feelings…" she slithered to his side like a wave of water and traced up his chest with her perfectly polished fingernails, making him shiver. The Faunus met her eyes, becoming lost in their vivid olive depths, he had to shake his head to snap out of it and form words before he started stuttering like a fool.

He gave his best grin and told her, "D-Danny… sup?" Nailed it.

She giggled, "Not much, just glad I found yah Puddin." Circe, he remembered her name from when she told him at the club, leaned forward and pressed her lips against the curve of his jaw before turning and bounding off with a playful smile. Her lively curls bounced with each step, and Danny had to blink a few times for his brain to fully comprehend what just happened. He pressed a hand to his cheek and smiled like an idiot while he grabbed his clothes and toothbrush to get ready for the day.

All morning Danny kept seeing more and more of Circe Hart. And that was not just a figure of speech; while he was brushing his teeth, he noticed her a few sinks down running a comb through her ebony and scarlet tresses before pinning some back with what looked like a cross between a red heart barrette and a throwing-star. However, what was odd was that she did all of this while facing away from the sink's mirror. Her hair was perfect, her makeup done with model precision, and the blade-heart pin gleamed in the light. She never looked in the mirror. Not once.

Breakfast was a little more normal; Circe sat across from him and kept staring intently at him as if she were the jungle cat and he the prey. Danny took a bite of his bacon, his tail curling nervously in the uncomfortable silence.

"Not nervous about some silly Grimm, are yah?" she asked, popping a sugared berry past her vivid crimson lips.

"No, it's not that…" he didn't think he had it in him to tell her that she was giving him the slight creeps. She seemed like a nice girl, she was just somewhat… intense.

Somehow, Circe seemed to know what he was thinking by the expression on his face, and her smile turned from flirtatious and hungry to one that was softer and more affectionate. As if, it was just for him. "I know I can be a lot to handle sometimes, but don't be getting' too scared Puddin. We are Huntsmen after all." She chirped.

Danny smiled and took another bite of his bacon, feeling more at ease with her than he did before.

When everyone got dressed was less strange but leagues more awkward for the Faunus boy. Many would call him a weirdo for wearing his leather mechanic gloves to sleep, but it was a habit he'd had since he was a kid.

While he shrugged on his vest and adjusted his gloves, he caught sight of her again standing next to a slightly taller girl with Ferrari red hair. She appeared to still be getting dressed, and his jaw practically hit the floor. Circe fasted buckles into place that held her heart-pattered corset that was clearly meant to draw eyes to her prominent bust; she then pulled up her tinted fishnet stockings with a black lacy trim that went all the way up her leg to her creamy upper thigh. She pulled a two leather straps from her locker and clipped them around her thighs to act as garters for the fishnets. To Danny's embarrassment, she then bent over slightly to buckle her boots, showing off her incredibly short skirt that was ruffled out sort of like a ballerina's. She adjusted her own black gloves with white frills before closing her locker and leaving with her redheaded friend.

But not before turning around and grinning, throwing him a wink before she disappeared down the corridor.

His new main color of choice was definitely going to be red before initiation was over.

* * *

Wanda slammed her weapon locker shut with a sharp clang, her spear slung over her shoulder and her eyes twitching slightly. "Can't believe they were completely out of blueberry muffins… I thought this was a school for rich kids or something!" she hit her locker with the side of her fist before stalking off; grumbling to herself because all that was left at the breakfast line was Pumpkin Pete's cereal. She shivered in disgust; that stuff tasted like what a nuclear vat smells.

She turned the corner to walk out to the cliff where initiation was to begin, when her bangs were promptly clipped an inch by a red and gold spear thrown from across the room into the wall, pinning some poor sap to the beige drywall.

"I'm sorry!" someone called. Wanda wasn't sure if they were apologizing to her or the blond who just became what one would call an 'abstract art piece.' She blinked and was about to tell them off but immediately clammed up at the appearance of her sister.

Before Weiss could make eye contact, Wanda had turned on her heel and mad-dove behind the wall of lockers. "Hm?" she heard her twin mutter in confusion, a cold bead of sweat ran down the back of her neck as her hands trembled in fear.

"Something wrong Weiss?" the apologetic one asked.

"No, I just… thought I saw…" testing her luck, Wanda peeked barley a hair around the lockers; Weiss seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before she shook her head and moved on. "Nothing, probably just a fly or something."

Her held breath did not release until the sound of her sister's designer, crisp white boots faded completely. Wanda screwed her eyes shut as her back met the wall and she slid down to her knees, pulling them towards her chest and letting out shaky breaths.

 _What was I thinking?_ She thought. _I can't do this; anything, even jail would be sooo much better than this nightmare…_

"Pre-initiation jitters?"

Wanda's head darted up from between her knees to see Pyrrha looking down at her with a sympathetic look on her face. "Yeah… jitters." she hugged her knees closer, slightly hoping they would hide her face. She could tell by the redhead's understanding expression that she already knew the extent of the situation: Weiss and Wanda were sisters, Weiss had no idea she was here, and Wanda didn't want her to know. And thankfully, she didn't ask any questions, just offered her sympathy.

It was oddly comforting.

 _"Would all first-year students please report to the Beacon Cliff for initiation. Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."_ The speakers blared a women's voice and once again, Wanda's hands began shaking, despite her tightly clenched fists.

Pyrrha offered her hand, "We should get going, don't want them to start without us." After staring at her hand for a good few seconds, Wanda grasped her forearm and pulled herself to her feet and cleared her throat before shoving her hands in her pockets and walking towards the exit, if not a little quickly.

It felt a little rude but what did you expect? She wasn't exactly a paint nails, try on clothes, and talk about boys type of girl, even if all Pyrrha did was help her up. No, it was better not to get involved, or attached, to anybody. Once initiation started and they were in the Emerald Forest, Wanda was ditching the Huntress dress-up game and getting out of Vale. She didn't have any plans past that point…

But then again she _had_ been taught to improvise.

* * *

Kaia loved forests; they were so different from the marshes back home. True she loved her grotto and missed it dearly, but the tall trees, cool wisps of air, and wide-open space was such a scenic and welcomed change from the warm and humid landscapes of Mistral.

The Emerald Forest of Vale was no exception; she couldn't believe a vast forest as beautiful and full as this could be infested with Grimm. The first-year students had all gathered at the edge of the cliff overlooking the forest, where they all waited patiently for Headmaster Ozpin to begin explaining their required feats within the emerald maze of danger.

Before he began, Ozpin's gaze fell to Kaia, to which she shyly looked down at the ground. She moved some soil with her foot as she heard him give an accepting "Hm." Before beginning.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

A blond woman with glasses stepped forward, also giving the blue-haired girl a passing look before she clicked some things on her tablet as if nothing ever happened. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of Teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion." Kaia smiled slightly at Glynda's attempt at humor. "Each of you will be given teammates… **today**."

"What? Ohhh…" One girl groaned. Kaia noticed she seemed rather small compared to the other teens here; maybe she was a late bloomer? Or a bit younger?

Ozpin continued, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." While the same girl from before groaned loudly, Kaia felt the headmaster's eyes practically burning into her while she kept her gaze on the cliff-side dirt. She lifted her cerulean orbs slightly to look at him and immediately regretted it. She'd been right, he wasn't quite staring but he was looking at her specifically. Oz gave nothing away facial wise but his honey colored eyes were urgent. She nodded once and he added, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

The same small girl in the red hood squealed looking absolutely dumbfounded as if she'd been slapped across the face. " ** _Whaaaat?!_** "

"See, I told you!" said a ginger-haired girl who wore her heart on her chest.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way." Ozpin's voice took on a serious tone, "Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path… or you _will_ die." Kaia twisted the blue-stoned ring on her middle finger around nervously at the word _destroy._ "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

A rather scraggly looking blond boy raised his hand, "Yeah, um, sir?" Ozpin cut him off, most likely not hearing or flat out ignoring his questions.

"Good. Now, take your positions."

Everyone, including Kaia, fell into a ready position on his or her respective tiles in the earth. However, the boy didn't seem to have a clue and kept running his mouth. "Uh, sir…?"

Wanda rolled her eyes and zoned out the white noise, focusing on the ticking and the springing of the tiles launching students off the cliff one by one. The first to go was her sister, thrown upwards into the air with her rapier poised and ready for battle. Ever the perfectionist. Each springboard made distinctive clicking noises before they sprung free like tightly wound coils that snapped.

 _Click, click, click… Spring!_

The sugar-high redhead was rocketed off the cliff with a happy squeal, and the blond was still talking about parachutes or something.

 _Click, click, click… Spring!_

The buxom girl from the airship had donned a pair of stylish aviators before she was air-born, letting loose a thrilling whoop as she freefell. Wanda touched her spear on her back as her board began to tick.

 _Click…_

No turning back once she was within those trees; find a way back to the city from there, and get as far away from Vale as humanly possible.

 _Click…_

No matter how much potential Ozpin said she had, she was not Huntress material. She'd been a sidekick at best before she ran away, and was finally getting to be independent. She wasn't going to give that up now.

But until she could get a moment alone for escape, she'd play Ozpin's game. She'd fight Grimm, and do whatever it took to make it look like she was cooperating.

 _Okay then…_ she thought, _Let's play a game._

 _Click…_

 _Spring!_


	9. Chapter 5: The First Step Pt 2

**Chapter 5: The First Step Pt. 2**

Circe did not like forests, or nature, or animals, or any living things really. So imagine her distress when she had to be thrown off a launch-pad into the air like a slinky toy. True she did not have a landing strategy, as Professor Four-Eyes so kindly prescribed, but the freefall had the wind whipping through her hair and numbed her blushing cheeks in a way that could only make her laugh like a child. At one point she turned to face upwards and grasp at the retreating sky on the way down.

Danny had an abundance of tricks up his sleeve; he always did and most likely always would. So, it was no surprise that he'd be one of the first to figure out his own landing strategy. Reaching into his mustard tool belt, he unclipped a metal ball with grooves and holes forged into it, and pulled loose a looped pin like it was a grenade. He threw the orb as far as his arm would go into the tree line, the ball exploding and releasing a metal bola that wrapped around branches creating a sort of safety net for him to land in. he slyly slid down into the wires until they stopped just before he touched the forest floor. But just as he reached for the release mechanism that would retract the wires back into their compact form, his acute ears heard manic laughter.

Turning his gaze skyward, Danny was too late to do anything about the possibly psychotic bundle of red that crashed into his stomach, snapping the metal chords beneath their combined weight and dropping them on the hard ground.

After his small heart attack subsided, Danny lifted his head to, for the second time that day, meet a pair of verdant eyes laced with gold flecks. "Mind if I _crash_ here for tonight?" she asked. Before he could groan from both his empty lungs and that abysmal pun, Circe pushed up on his chest to straddle his hips in a rather… risqué manner. She had her arms held up towards the sky as a battle axe dislodged from a tree branch to land in her gloved palms, the metalwork glinting in the light. Danny blinked, praying to every deity that she would get off his waist in the next five seconds.

His wish was granted as she brushed off her skirt and fluffed her curls, reattaching her weapon to her back. "Looks like we're partners for life Mr. Pussy Cat." If he wasn't scarlet-faced before, he sure as hell was now.

"We should keep moving!" she visibly pouted when he sprang to his feet and took off into the shrubbery. Blowing the large curl that covered her eye away, Circe followed her jungle cat through the forest.

* * *

Glynda would have a fit if she ever found out how Kaia organized her landing strategy. She didn't want to break any branches on the way down, and her semblance couldn't do much in the midst of a freefall, so there really wasn't much choice left. The blue-haired girl closed her eyes and entwined her hands together, her aura spiking heavily as her form glowed blue. Her eyes opened to reveal glowing magenta markings in the shape of a flower in the center of her iris, similar shapes of vines and brambles forming around her eyes and cheeks like henna. She threw out her arms, hands also covered in the glowing markings, and they were enveloped in actual vines and roots that had grown high enough to wrap around her waist and shoulders, slowing her fall and setting her gently on the forest floor.

Once their task was complete the roots reverted back into the earth, and Kaia's eyes returned to their natural oceanic blue. A rumble came from her chest as Persephone emerged from her jacket, settling around her shoulders like normal. "Let's not tell anyone about that okay?" the cat said nothing in reply.

She began making her way through the woods, when the Mau bristled and growled from deep in her belly. Kaia's hands darted to the fans attached to her thighs and opened them up with more confidence than her thundering heartbeat would have most believe. "Come out! I can hear you moving out there!" she squeaked, a bit red at the fact she'd tried to sound threatening. When she received no answer, Kaia fell into her fighting stance, gripping the handle of her fan tighter so her hands would stop shaking.

All was silent. Even the birds had gone quiet. That could not be good. And of course, it'd be a trio of Ursai to burst through the trees, and charge towards her already swinging. With a startled yelp, she managed to block a massive paw with her fan until a different bear swiped at her legs and knocked her down. Persephone raked her small but lethal claws into the Grimm's eyes so Kaia could get back to her feet and jump back to avoid another swing of claws. One of the three Ursa charged at her once more, but she saw it coming and managed to backflip away from them, enough space between them for her to think of an attack strategy.

"Persephone! Come!" the feline was at her side in an instant, climbing up her back and holding onto her shoulders, tail puffed up to show her agitation. "It's okay girl, we've fought Grimm plenty of times." If Nevermores the size of hummingbirds counted. The swamp where she lived prior was so thick and dense not even Grimm larger than that could navigate it.

The Ursai all growled and began to advance towards her. Her eyes narrowed and with a grunt she chucked one of her fans right into the middle one's neck, slicing it cleanly before it twirled back into her hand like a boomerang. It dropped like a chopped tree, it's comrades exchanging a glance before roaring and charging at her full speed. Kaia gulped and tumbled out of the way before they could touch her. With a duck to avoid claws, and an upper kick to its jaw to distract it, she drove her fan across the monster's chest. That only left…

The third Grimm, by far the largest, showed no mercy as it locked its jaws around her torso and threw her as hard as it could across the clearing. Her back meeting a tree trunk with a painful splintering of wood and crackling of her fading aura.

She could feel her aura dip into the red, the bear-like beast stalking towards her downed form. "Persephone… come…" she croaked weakly. But the cat was nowhere in sight, and the Ursa was getting closer.

Kaia whimpered, feeling weak and defeated; her aura too low for her to call on her powers. The Grimm roared as it stood on its hind paws and drew back for its killing blow. It brought its supernatural claws down, but the body of a grey striped cat who'd leapt into the fray and absorbed the blow for her owner blocked the hit.

"Persephone!" with newfound strength, Kaia crawled over to her friend's lithe body sprawled out on the forest floor. She scooped the animal's form up into her arms, ignoring the Ursa who was now only even more agitated. The tan-skinned girl could only stare with tears welling up in her eyes as she held her only companion in her arms, and stared into the face of what would likely be her death.

The Ursa reared up once more and roared, taking a step forward… only to fall over on its belly a moment later, a white spear lodged deep in the place between its neck and back.

Blue eyes widened in amazement as the teenage girl with the long snowy braid pulled her spear free from the carcass. _"Are you unharmed Kaia?"_ she asked softly as not to startle the poor girl.

Kaia blinked. "W-what?"

Wanda didn't reply for a moment before she half-sneered half-insisted her words. "I said get up you idiot! Your crying is going to attract more Grimm!"


	10. Chapter 6: The Emerald Forest Pt 1

**Chapter 6: The Emerald Forest Pt. 1**

After her Puddin went his way into the woods, Circe went looking for him, but so far wasn't able to find him. Stupid forest, hiding her man from her. She trudged on through the underbrush, stomping on any leafy green obstacle that stood in her way with a gold-toed high-heel boot.

"Here kitty kitty kitty!" she _cat-called_ , snickering internally at her own joke. The snapping of fallen twigs interrupted her musings, "Puddin?" she brandished her axe and used it to push aside the pesky branches that impaired her line of vision, "That you?"

Unfortunately for Circe, the only response she received was an inhuman growl and the flashing of wild red eyes. Grimm, of course, it would be Grimm. "Hmm… an oldie but a goody." As predicted, four beowolves emerged from the foliage, all looking vicious in one way or the other. She pointed to one of them, "Eenie…" and to another, "Meenie…" her tongue traced the curves and bumps of her teeth, "Minie…" as if preparing for a meal.

Baring it's surprisingly white teeth, the Grimm lunged for the girl, only to fall short and trip over its own paws. Axe raised over her shoulders in trembling excitement cut short when she noticed the strong yet delicate metal ropes coiled around the wolf's legs and jaw, preventing much movement other than it's vicious growls. Circe made a teasing gesture with her tongue stuck out with a chirping giggle.

The remaining wolves scattered into the forest, avoiding their demise after not sensing negativity nearby. Circe moaned in disappointment, "That was way too boring! What gives?!"

The underbrush rustled some more, parting to reveal the leopard Faunus in question, a bit out of breath Danny wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, mussing up the white skunk-stripe that ran through his gingersnap locks. Circe would even compare him to one of those glistening shampoo models who did everything in drooling slow motion. She was _definitely_ drooling.

"Sorry I ran off before…" his cheeks reddened as he looked down at his boots. Danny wasn't looking directly at her, but he could picture her grinning red lips and the small green light in the corner of his vision that blinked alive whenever he met her lovely gaze. He'd suspected since the night at the club; her plump lips were too red, her teeth too white, her hair appeared too soft, and her skin too perfect… That little green dot had become the third wheel between the two that only Danny was aware of. He had learned years ago that whenever it appeared, someone was not being truthful with him.

It told him whether someone was lying to him or not.

However, when he met her eyes, her smile was surprisingly understanding. "Don't worry about it, you'll have plenty of time to make it up to me… I hear the team dorms are co-ed." Danny's complexion in that moment rivaled Circe's own ruby red lips when she giggled and winked at him. "I'm just pullin' your tail Puddin! Let's just go find those relics everyone won't shut up about!" she took his hand in hers, and Danny felt her warmth seep through both their gloves and into his metal hand. Often the only time he felt warmth like hers in his cyborg limbs was when he rarely took his gloves off and left them in the sun for a long time before putting them back on.

The two stepped cautiously past the still bound beowolf and continued through the Emerald Forest.

* * *

Wanda pressed her hand against the earth, feeling the depth of the Ursa prints she and her new partner were tracking. They were only about a centimeter into the dirt so it had been moving rather quickly, probably sensing more initiates. Not too difficult to follow, it was more than likely that the Grimm would be drawn to the areas with more people, and almost everyone in the forest was trying to find the so-called ruins they were all supposed to make their way towards. Follow the Grimm, and find their relics, or in her case, track the Grimm and go the opposite direction towards Vale.

Now if only her _partner_ wasn't such a crybaby.

"I hope we find the others soon, although I'd hate to have to fight anybody…" she whimpered, still holding her cat. Wanda had to say, for being thrown like a ragdoll by a beowolf, Persephone was being an incredibly good sport about it. She was contently purring in Kaia's arms, having molded herself to her owner's hold as to rest more comfortably.

Rather than snap about being a Huntress in training who doesn't like fighting and who brings a _cat_ onto a battlefield, Wanda settled for rolling her eyes and continuing to track the Ursa paw prints.

Curious about what her new partner was doing other than clearly tracking prints in the ground, Kaia knelt down next to her and blinked sheepishly, "What are you doing there?" she asked. Wanda audibly sighed and pointed to the other tracks ahead of them leading deeper into the forest.

"See those tracks? If a bunch of teenagers are running around in an unfamiliar environment then it'll attract Grimm, and since everyone is traveling closer to the relics…" she left the end of her explanation open for Kaia to piece together on her own.

"Then if we follow the Grimm it'll lead us to _our_ relic!" she chirped excitedly. The whitette gave her a forced smile, a pat on the back with a prompt praise before her face fell back into its disinterested scowl, and she began to trudge off in the _opposite_ direction of the Ursa tracks. Kaia's gaze flitted back and forth between her partner and the path to the relics with obvious confusion. "W-wait, I thought you said we'd find the relics in _that_ direction."

Wanda paused to turn to look her partner in the eye, "No… _you_ will be finding the relics in that direction, _I_ will be exiting this forest and getting back to Vale before that big-boobed teacher and Ozpin find out I ever even left," she brushed aside a branch and continued on before Kaia could reply, leaving the blue-haired girl confused and rather frightened at being left alone in a dangerous place she was not familiar with.

"Wait! You can't leave me here!" Kaia lunged and grabbed Wanda around her arm, stopping her from taking another step. How was she supposed to make it through the woods alone?! Her swamp never had a Grimm problem, at least not any she had ever seen, the thick plant cover that surrounded her home had always protected her.

Wanda rolled her eyes so hard she could feel it in the deepest corners of her skull. Sure it had been easy to ignore how utterly _fragile_ this girl was at first, since she had thought that Kaia _at least_ knew how to fight. But the quirk was, she did not _like_ fighting! Not even Grimm!

"What's your deal anyway?" she turned and looked at the blue-haired girl with contempt. Kaia shrunk slightly and let go of her arm, taking a step back. "You're in a school that trains day and night to fight monsters… and you hate fighting? How does that make any sense?!"

"I was taught the best solved problems were solved without violence… but I can still fight! I've trained in defensive combat since I was little."

"Great!" Wanda cut in. "Then you'll have absolutely no problem finding a way through this forest to your shiny new partner! Who is _not_ me." With that, she turned her back on her partner and tried to continue on her way to Vale and far away from Beacon.

Kaia was quick to let a purring Persephone down gently before rushing Wanda and blocking her path into the woods. "You can't!"

Scoffing in annoyance Wanda took the other girl by the shoulders and moved her aside. "You're in my way."

"If you leave, we can't form a four-person team!" she cried.

"Not. My. _Problem!"_

Overcome by her partner's unyielding determination to leave and her own nervousness of the unknown that lay ahead of her, Kaia blocked her partner's path again and refused to let her path. "Why are you so adamant on leaving?! Don't you want to be a huntress? This place is the only way to get there and leaving is only going to make things worse! The point of teams and partners is to never fight Grimm alone! Don't you understand?! We have to stick together!"

Wanda glared and grit her teeth, resisting the urge to punch her or just run and hope she was faster. "You think I actually _want_ to be here?!"

She didn't realize her fists were clenched white until she felt a rumbling ball of fur rub against her leg. Wanda looked down to meet Persephone's gaze, somehow calming her down at least a little. Enough for her to remember where she was, and that arguing about nothing would only attract more obstacles. Maybe Kaia's no-violence thing had some ground to it.

Taking a deep breath, she started the conversation over. "Look… this, has nothing to do with you. I'm just… not cut out for being a Huntress… there are people here who I'd rather not run into in the middle of a battle and especially not end up on the same team with." Weiss still thought her sister was dead, and Wanda preferred to keep it that way. If she and her twin ever actually came face-to-face after all these years, it would be a disaster. Weiss would no doubt feel betrayed and try to never speak to her again. Their family would find out and it would become a spectacle cut open and dissected by the media until it sucked the possible happy and relieved reunions from the world.

She could not do that to them. Not to Weiss.

"So I'm leaving while I can and never coming back… I'm sorry."

Not saying another word, Wanda left through the brush and disappeared from Kaia's view, leaving the poor girl confused and slightly afraid. Without a partner, Kaia was all alone in an unfamiliar and rather dangerous environment. She nearly jumped when she felt her feline friend bat at her boot-toe with her paws, looking up into her owner's eyes with a look of resolute certainty.

Understanding what her pet was trying to prove, Kaia sucked in her chest and stared into the woods ahead of her with firmness of her purpose. "We were paired for a reason… and I won't let her quit so easily!" She scooped Persephone into her arms and set off in the same direction Wanda had disappeared. "I'm not afraid!"

* * *

After ditching the blue-haired girl and her weird cat, Wanda had wandered through the Emerald Forest for about five minutes before she realized something. In her hurry to put distance between her and Kaia…

She had gotten herself lost.

Groaning and running her hand through her ivory bangs, she propped herself on a tree to get her thoughts in order and get her bearings. "Okay… show me what you've got." She challenged to no one in particular, dragging her hand down her face.

Alright, it was a forest; she'd seen _plenty_ of forests. Lived in them even. She was fully capable of navigating one. She pushed off the tree and trekked onward, unknowingly going deeper into the woods and in the opposite direction she was trying to go.

Letting her thoughts drift, she thought back to Kaia. Maybe she had been a bit harsh snapping at her as she did. After all, she was just like everyone else in the Emerald Forest: trying to make it through alive. It was hardly fair to judge someone for being afraid of things that were put on this earth for the sake of causing fear.

Wanda was pulled from her thoughts when she tripped on something. Glancing down she noticed multiple broken tree branches scattered around her feet, all leading to a massive fallen tree in the middle of her path. Slowly approaching to examine it, as seeing it had no pull roots or any indication of having fallen naturally, she noticed one end cut so cleanly it had to be done recently.

"Probably someone looking for the relics." She concluded. Confirming it was nothing to be cautious of, Wanda climbed over the fallen tree and was about to continue on, when something else caught her eye.

It was long and black, laid gracefully across the ground from when it drifted down from the tree line. When she reached to touch it Wanda quickly pulled her hand back, cursing silently once she realized the large feather was razor sharp.

Which could only mean one thing.

 ** _"_** ** _EEEEEEEEEEERRRRRAAAAAAWWWW!"_**

"Oh, crapbaskets…"

* * *

 **I Knooooooooooow it's been Waaaaaaaay too long since I've updated. To be honest I've lost a lot of what inspired me, probably having to do with you're regular teenage depression and all that jazz. But I won't bore you. I want you to know that this chapter marks my Return to the Fanfiction! I will try to update regularly as my senior year starts and my routine is reset. But I promise that none of my other fics are discontinued, some are on hiatus until I get my grove back. But RWBY, Ivy, and Descendants are my top priorities! Chao!**


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